Direction

Continuing from the last post, today's post is going to be a post about my more optimistic thoughts about the future. While I've had lots of time to regret or wonder "what would've happened if", I've also had to accept that I can't do anything about it anyways. There's no use getting caught up in the past, so why not start thinking about what I can change?

So...I started thinking a lot about the future. So, I know that I don't want to teach for the rest of my life. How will I enjoy/spend my time now and what am I going to do after JET?

Even before the JET Program started, I knew that I wanted to go to graduate school for Speech Language Pathology or Audiology. I really love learning about hearing and pronunciation. I want to help people with speech problems (particularly stuttering), and I really enjoy helping make a difference in people's lives. While I haven't been able to impact many students in my time on JET, seeing the ones that I have (had an impact on) reach their goals and achieve happiness warms my soul and is definitely one of the sole redeeming qualities of the JET Program experience. I really believe that becoming a Speech Language Pathologist can help me do what I love and help other people attain happiness.

My plan is to go to San Diego State University to pursue a Master's in Speech Language Pathology. I've been researching the requirements for graduate school entry into any Speech Language Pathology program and I've emailed SDSU's Communication Sciences Graduate Department to ask a bunch of questions about the program. From my research and questioning, I found that I can't get into any Speech-Language Pathology graduate program with my current Linguistics/Psychology bachelor's degree (or my current GPA, for that matter...while it is not a bad GPA, it's just not high enough for admittance into the program). Because of this, I'd need to finish a post-baccalaureate degree to help me catch up to other Communicative Disorders majors before I try to apply for a graduate program. Thankfully, for students who complete a post-baccalaureate program, the post-bac GPA is the one that SDSU (and other graduate schools) will use, rather than my undergrad GPA at UCSD.

Once I finish acing that post-baccalaureate program, with my better post-baccalaureate GPA, recommendations from professors in that post-baccalaureate program, my experience with the JET program, and soccer/work-life experience from being a two-time All-American, I think that I'll have a really good chance at getting into my dream program.

To further help my chances in getting accepted into that program, I'm going to retake the GRE. I found out that I can take it in Tokyo. Even though I've already taken the test twice, I think that I can improve my score with vigorous studying. My score right now is a few points above the average (not very impressive), but I think that, with a top score, I can almost guarantee my acceptance into SDSU (or at the very least, acceptance into at least one program). I've signed up to take it on April 26th, the Friday right before a long string of holidays in Japan called "Golden Week".

I've found many resources online to help me study for all parts of the exam, and I've even joined a study program which I will have access to while I have free time at work (and boy, do I have a lot of free time at work...), where I can watch video lessons, study math and vocabulary, take practice tests, and work on problem areas! In addition, I've been taking notes, reading articles from the New Yorker online (in hopes of increasing my vocabulary), and making flashcards.

It's going to be a lot of hard work, but this month, I'm not teaching any classes, so I'm taking advantage of this time to study my ass off. I know I'll get the best score that I can get if I keep on studying as passionately as I have been until the time when I take the test.

47 days left until the GRE. Wish me luck!! :)