Thinking about the future

There was a girl who came into Wilson Library yesterday who got me thinking about life after college. She's a rising senior, and is thinking about going into the Peace Corps. And get this: she's already filling out the application. Ahhhhh!

Que freaking out.

This encounter made me realize that I really need to start thinking about what I'm going to do when May comes around. I started looking up some stuff at work (because I have nothing else to do), and it is making me really nervous. I feel anxious, excited, restless, etc. And I hate feeling that way.

Here are the things that I'm thinking about:

1) IV staff - there are many different possibilities within this option

• Regular Campus Staff - a recent idea/interest, not sure what I think about it yet.
• International Student Ministry Staff - I started thinking about this last summer, and I was really excited about it at the time, but it's starting to lose some of it's pull with me. I'm not really sure why, I'm just not as excited about this option as I have been in the past. And that's hard because there are several people who think that I should do ISM staff. But it's still a possibility, bouncing around in my head.
• IV Link Staff - This has been in the back of my mind for a couple of years now, but I'm just now thinking about it seriously. It's kind of at the top of my list right now. It is the option that makes me the most excited, and just looking into it makes me want to go NOW! The only thing about this is that I'll be right out of college, and I'm not sure how I will handle that kind of job right after I graduate, with no real ministry experience, save the leadership positions I've held in IV. But right now, if I was given the opportunity to join Link, I'd leave today.

2) Seminary

• I'm definitely sick of school, so I'm not sure if going straight to seminary would be my best option. And, I'm in debt enough as it is, thanks to my undergraduate loans. I'd rather not jump right into another source of serious debt without having my previous debt taken care of.
• But I definitely want to go to seminary at some point, and I definitely think it can help with ministry. It could also give me a few more years to decide exactly what it is I want to/am called to do.

3) Regular 9-5 job

• Getting a job, any kind of job, that I will work at for a few years to pay off my student loans before going overseas.
• There's also the option of getting a job for a few years with a missions agency, so that I will at least be part of cross-cultural ministry, even if I'm not the one who is going.

4) TIMO from AIM

• This is a 2-year program with African Inland Mission that involves going to a rural area in Africa with a small, multi-cultural team. You spend time learning the language and the culture before beginning ministry that will bless the community. Cultural immersion is emphasized, and the teams do everything exactly the way that the people in the community do it (housing, cooking, cleaning, etc).

5) Peace Corps

• I've been thinking about this for a little while, but not really seriously. I've heard lots of good things about the Peace Corps, and there are a lot of benefits to doing it. But the only downside for me is that most of their programs require specialized degrees and experience, most of which I don't have. So I don't even know how this would work out for me.

One of the main things that I have to consider with all of these is how they will affect me being able to pay off my student loans. I know that IV, at least to some degree, will work with you to raise support to pay off your loans. But I don't know if that also goes for Link Staff, and I have no idea what the situation is with TIMO and the Peace Corps. So that is something that I need to consider.

Not the most exciting post, but I just wanted to get some of these thoughts out there.