When at first you don’t succeed, celebrate!
Weird advice, I know, but when one opportunity does not work out, you never know what the next opportunity is going to be.
Sometimes it will be even better than you imagined.
Last fall I decided to apply for graduate schools, forgoing all of the plans I had made the past three years.
I told myself that if I got in, great. I would then look at all of the options (and tuition costs), and go from there.
If I did not get in, it would be no big deal because I could just use my fallback option of trying to find a job in public relations.
That was September Maggie. March Maggie really wanted to get into her dream grad school.
After months of waiting, I finally heard back from two of my grad schools and, unfortunately, it was not good news.
I was devastated because who wouldn’t be?
All my eggs were basically put into one basket and suddenly that metaphorical basket was destroyed.
I even channeled my frustration by writing a whole other column full of snarkiness.
Thankfully, that one did not need to be published.
This may be cliche, but the saying “when one door closes another one opens” is kind of true.
Last year I interned at the Detroit Historical Society in the Marketing and Public Relations Department and loved every minute of it because it combined many things that I enjoy: writing, museums and history.
I found out through my former internship supervisor that there was a sudden opening in his department and he asked if I was available to start working later that week part-time.
A job offer is something one does not usually expect while walking between classes.
He said that though the job was only part-time for now, it could possibly lead to a full-time position after graduation and that was something to consider.
I accepted the offer and started Friday.
Just when I was content with starting my possible post-grad job, another email from a graduate school came through and this time it contained good news.
I was accepted into King’s College in London.
From going to no options to two great ones in the span of just a few days feels amazing, but it also means that a tough decision is going to have to be made soon.
Working in a museum setting is something that I have always dreamed about, but so is living and studying abroad.
This is definitely a time of transition for those of us who are graduating in a matter of weeks and the future can seem uncertain.
This time last week I was freaking out about what next year was going to bring, and now, even though I now have two pieces of the puzzle, I still don’t have it figured out.
This is something that I never thought that I would write, but I am excited about this newfound uncertainty.
Planning things out and writing down the pros and the cons of everything – that’s how my decisions are usually made.
Right now I am just taking it one day at a time and seeing what these new experiences are going to bring.
Whatever I decide to do next year will be filled with unknowns and excitement and I know that I am ready, somewhat, to take on what lies beyond that newly opened door.
Jackson is VN editor-in-chief
