3 more months at UCLA!

I am counting down the last few days of my time here at UCLA and I am both excited and scared :0

Luckily I managed to grab a job for after I graduate :)
I am going to be a teacher! I was accepted into the Teach for America program which is a two year commitment. I will get money for moving to anywhere they send me, full salary and benefits as well as grant money that I could use toward a masters degree in education.I am thinking I am going to do this for two years then start the graduate school process.

Also,I decided that I didn't want to be a lawyer - I will still go to law school, maybe even take the bar but I wont be an active attorney. I would rather spend my time working on issues related to people of color. Which is why I now plan to get my JD and a Ph. D in ethnic,Chicana/o studies or American studies. I have already started on some research that I hope to turn into a dissertation once I am ready for that next step. It has to do with education of historically marginalized groups so I my time with Teach for America will give me some good real world work to add to my research.

March 25 I am heading to Washington, D.C! Going to take some classes there and do an internship. Then I am going to return about a week before graduation and...well...graduate from UCLA!

Its hard for me to believe that I am actually going to accomplish a long awaited goal for me. I am going to be the first in my family to graduate from a university.

I am hoping that i can be a good role model for my little sisters who are currently wondering what to do with their lives. My brother already chose the military, and my other sister decided she wanted to be medical assistant. I have big issues with the fact that my little brother and older sister both took the easy way out but that's what I will be looking at with my research...sort of. I will be looking at how priorities are set within communities of color and how they are indoctrinated to believe that they must make money as fast as possible instead of going to college for a degree. I guess that mentality comes with living in capitalist system, but what else could explain the high rates of Latina/os and African Americans not going to college?

I am getting off topic again, haha
I think its because a lot of my friends have ADD and dyslexia. Their tendencies are rubbing off on me!!!

Anyway, its my last 3 months on the UCLA campus and bam! Done with my undergrad...ugh.