Back to the norm.

I haven't had a typical reflective post in awhile, so I thought I would put one up tonight.

It's a futuristic reflection.

And it's an open-ended question: if you had a choice between graduating a semester early and graduating at the normal time, which would you choose?

Here's the dilemma, and I'll try to spell everything out clearly: if I wanted to, I could graduate a semester early (as in, next December instead of next May). I've got some pros and cons for each option, and for ease of reading, I'll put them in an anal-analytical table-like format.

Graduate in December:

Pros - I'd save a lot of money, for me and my parents, by going one semester instead of two, which would give me more money in the bank to get started paying off loans and to live life in general. (I would only have to budget for one semester instead of two!) I would be free from January to May - I could enjoy the snow and skiing scene back home that I have dearly missed the last few years, I could maybe take some interesting courses at MCC while I was around, I could travel - a great time to hook up with my fellow study abroad student from Canada and go hiking and backpacking in the Canadian Rockies, also a great time to spend a week or more with my sister. I could take some "time off" to figure out what I want my next step to be: I could look for a job around home, start trying to apply for things in State Parks or National Parks and see where things go from there, and I could always fall back on a summer job at Bodie or some other place to make some bank if I don't have something lined up by summer. One semester less means one semester less of general school stress and one semester less of being in the city. And of course, anytime between March and May would be a great time to do my National Parks road trip!

Cons - Leaving a semester early would mean leaving my friends a semester early (although granted I could come and visit them pretty easily since I don't live too far away). It would mean one semester less of Jazz Band (and no going to Elmhurst again). It would mean that I wouldn't get to take the Intro to Botany course that I tried to take pretty much every semester since I got to NPU (although I could take botany courses at MCC on my own if I was home for the spring semester). And on a side note, I probably wouldn't be able to swing getting "academic honors in history". (I'm not exactly sure how that whole thing works, but I think I could get it if I did the extra semester.) And of course, I miss any opportunities that the spring semester would bring: other global partnership trips, other service opportunities around Chicago, club activities, etc.

Graduate in May:

Pros - Graduating in May means I get one more semester at North Park. That's one more semester to be with my friends before I get dumped off in the real world. That's one more semester of joy from playing in the Jazz Band (and one more semester to try and excel under Joe's direction), and one more semester to take advantage of opportunities that may come my way: perhaps a spring internship at a museum or cultural center in Chicago, the chance to take more NPU courses - including botany, and a full year of a new language, perhaps?-, the opportunity to do a Spring Break with my friends - or perhaps to go on another Global Partnership trip over the break. And of course, there's the chance that I could fulfill the necessary requirements to graduate with honors in History.

Cons - One more semester means about $5000 more dished out to North Park, that's more money spent from my pocket, my parents' pocket, and more debt to add to my loans. I'd have one more semester of school stresses, and I would be thrown out with less free time to figure out what I want to do next. It'd just be school->summer job->who knows where!? There would be no break period to have nothing to do but figure out what I want to do and where I want to go next. It would be one more winter of skiing and spring of hiking and family time that I would miss out on - and since I will probably be going into the working world soon after graduation, that might be the last chance I get to enjoy a careless winter/spring season and spend all that time with my family. And I don't know when I would get the chance to travel on my own, meet up with people all over, and whatnot - it wouldn't be until much later, I'm sure, if at all.

So that's the puzzle I've got laid out before me. I never am quite sure which side I agree with more. One day or one week I'll think that I really just want to graduate and get that free time; the next day or next week I'll get really clingy to everything that I've built up for myself at North Park and not want to let go of it so fast. Currently I'm leaning more towards the early graduation, but chances are that could change within a week or so. But I'm willing to take suggestions here, since I'm pretty undecided myself, and as my mom would say: I always make a more solid decision when someone tells me what I should do and I either forcibly agree or forcibly disagree with what they say. So, the floor is yours. Tell me: what would you do in my shoes?