I've been promising to share my plans for the future for about a week now and the thought occurs to me that I should perhaps give you something to make up for the blatant misery of the previous post. (In addition it gives me a break from my philosophy paper...) I was reminded of them (my daydreams, I mean my plans) again when the lovely student worker from our campus career center tracked me down to subject me their current junior survey. So in simple, humble terms I will lay forth for your perusal my thoughts for my future...

After graduating I plan to wander the world, beginning in Europe and working my way east, staying as long as my money (what I have, what I can make while I'm there, and what I owe due to loans) holds out and perhaps a bit longer after that. The reason for this period of wandering is not entirely frivolous, but I'll come back to that. After the year or so of travel, I am hoping to continue in school, hopefully on the graduate level, but if I have to take some more undergraduate classes that will be fine. And the field? Not theology or philosophy (though I will always study in those areas- its gotten into my blood, its how I think now). I am going to go into conservation and research, so a degree in conservation biology, ecology, or natural sciences is the general aim right now. I need to do more research in the specific degrees, but that is the field. Where is such a degree useful? Government work to begin with, National Forest service, Department of land and natural resources; within the private sector there are conservation agencies and organizations.
Now back to the year or so of traveling. I have noticed that while being here in school will expand one's mind regarding the intellectual life, it can cause a rather narrow view of the world as a whole. Given the way technology and global economics have been developing in the last decade or so, there are few things that happen in one corner of the world that do not affect other parts of it in some way. I want to be able to see how this works first-hand. Further, if I want to enter a field that is concerned with the world as a whole, it will give me an advantage to have a feel for it and some first hand knowledge of it. In addition, I have seen that within the conservation movement, people tend to get dropped out of the big picture. In the more extreme views mankind is seen as a plague upon the earth. I see no danger of this happening to me, but I want to know the people in these areas that are so "crucial to the salvation of the earth."
What draws me to this? Various reasons. I love nature and the outdoors and abhor the idea of being trapped behind a desk as a career. I see the world not as being a possession of man, but as a stewardship entrusted to him for the greater glory of God. Destroying it will not give Him glory and I do believe that we will be held accountable for it in some way. Thinking less theologically but along the same lines, it makes no sense to destroy what has been inherited from our fathers; rather we should strive to be able to had down to innumerable future generations. I find the workings of economics and politics on all levels ( global, national, local) fascinating, and conservation seems to be an apt way of combining many of the areas I am rather passionate about.

So that, in brief, is the direction I'm headed in. Its the "what I want to do when I grow up," modified and refined, that I've had since I was about 12 or 13, having only gotten stronger as time went by. I honestly have no idea where or how a husband or family work into this, but right now I don't have to worry about that...
I do need to start looking into grad schools and degree requirements and grants and scholarships and - but all of that can wait until my paper is finished...