The End and The Beginning.

          I am in my senior year at University at Buffalo. It is my last somewhat semester. I will still be taking 2 summer classes, but those will end by July or August. I am studying English Literature and writing. It was not easy to get to this point in my life. I thought many times that I would never graduate, especially since this is my third major that I changed. I started with architecture, studied it for a year. I changed my major to biology, studied that for a year and a semester. In between I skipped a semester due to a hold in my account for this medical insurance fee. [I started at UB in a dorm and since I was resided in Houston, Texas, I had to get the school's health insurance, since I did not have my own.] I am finally set on English as my major, and I love it. I think it was the best change I made and I am so glad I decided to do it, even though it was risky and I was scared that I would be way over in my head. But English turns out to be the truth of who I am.

           

          Now, I did mention that I lived in Houston. Technically, I am from New York, and I have lived my whole life in New York for the most part. I did move in between to other places, but New York was my birth place and where I went to most of schools. I moved to Houston after I graduated from high school. My parents just wanted to live in a cheaper city. My father had a friend that was also moving there, and so he checked it out, liked it, and so I lived in Houston for about 3-4 years. I did not like Houston that much, but now I look back and it is now my second home. I made plenty new friends. I got my first job, and other jobs there. I went to Houston Community College, and studied art for 2 years and graduated with my Associates in Art.
                       
                                                               

LaSalle Lake at UB 

UB Student Union

          I wanted to go back to New York, so hence I applied and got accepted at UB. I loved architecture but for the wrong reasons. Being an art major, I thought architecture would be the same. But that there were other issues as well, such as teaching assistants or T.A's were the instructors, and the professors were rarely around. The T.A's had their favorites and they graded unfairly, especially my T.A. In architecture programs, there are a set of studio classes that a student has to take. There are overall 8-10 studio courses, which are taken 2 per year. Overall, it takes 4-5 years to get a bachelors in architecture. I already had my associates, and the classes were all accepted, so I had no requirements other than taking architecture courses. I thought I would have only 2 more years and I would graduate. I was struggling in the studio class as well, and I did not like what I was learning. For instance, the assignment for the entire semester was based off an object that we had to choose and we drew and made abstract paper sculptures out of it over and over again. My object was pliers. I tried to follow the assignment, and would not do well. But when I made up my own thing the T.A was impressed. At that point it felt like a sculpture class.

           I researched into architecture online. I found out that only 1 woman has won the architecture award, which is equivilant to the Noble Peace Prize, and that woman's name is Zaha Hadid. She is like the queen of architecture because she is the only woman to win that award. I tried to search for more famous architects and found it quite difficult and managed to get about 9 or 10 more architects. It is a bit depressing being a girl and how it is 2015 yet in this industry men are still the majority. I realize even in my studio class there were about 4 girls in my section including me and there were about 9 or 10 boys. There were more girls in other sections, but yet it was still odd. Then there was the fact that I would still have to get an architecture license and it is a 7 part exam that cost about $1,400! Most architects only did some freelance projects that were of making houses or renovations of a house. Other jobs are working in architecture firms for someone, or having your own firm (requires a lot of money). You can also become a professor which would require a PhD or a T.A which is for students doing their Masters in architecture. According to forbes.com architecture is the #1 hated degree from companies that are hiring, because it is such a narrow field of study.  So after contemplating all of this I finally decided to change my major. I still love architecture, I became interested in it when I was 10 years old, and had lived in Dallas for a few months. I hope to one day see the Falling Water building by Frank Lloyd Wright, my favorite building!
  
  Zaha Hadid : Sunrise Tower, Malaysia

          Frank Lloyd Wright: Falling Water, Pennsylvania. 

          Now I went into Biology primarily because of my parents. I had gone back to Houston to transfer to a university there to study biology. But somehow, my parents decided that they wanted to move back to New York. I worked at my old job at Fiesta Mart in Houston in the summer in the mean time. Then right during Hurricane Sandy we all moved back to New York and resided in Buffalo. That is also why I had to skip the semester in fall. It was definitely an adventure, as we sat in a moving truck (my father, brother, me, mom, and little sister). The van was attached to the U-Haul truck, and in the van were 3 cats. One cat is mine, and the other two were my sisters. My sister was living in Pennsylvania during that time with her husband. So we dropped her cats to her while heading to Buffalo. They persuaded me to do something in the medical field. My best subjects do not fall in science criteria. I may have been alright in biology, but chemistry and physics were hell for me. I struggled in chemistry even when I was in high school. It was my worst subject. In college it is required to have 2 courses in chemistry, 2 courses in physics, and 2 courses in math calculus. I managed to do calculus 1. I ended up struggling so much and retaking courses only to drop them because I was failing, was so stressful. I didn't want to let my parents down. Now my parents moved back to Texas, and my sister also moved to Texas with her husband. I am now by myself in Buffalo. So when I changed my major to English I did not tell my parents until I completed more than half the courses. Although I really want to help people, I just did not have the brains for it. I realized that biology is only the beginning and if a person wants to do anything in medical field a masters is required. I had planned on doing either occupational therapy or health administration. I was afraid of the stress that a person has working in hospitals.
                         

                                                                     Pennsylvania

 U-Haul and the van. 

Chewy :x)

               I had the option of seeing and experiencing that stress in a hospital due to my mother's diagnosis with breast cancer. While my mother was still living with me, she had gone through surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation in Buffalo. I would often go with her. What really discouraged me was when my mother had her surgery, and after that the doctor that did the surgery basically ignored us. We would sometimes pass her and she would just never really acknowledge us, or ask how my mom is doing. My mom had to come to that hospital for chemotherapy and radiation, and often we ran into her. But again, nothing. It was such and empty feeling. The other thing that made me sad was seeing children at the hospital. Seeing all these people that had the same problem: cancer. It was a cancer research hospital. I also did not want to go to medical school, it sounds cool and exciting but having to do 4 years in school and then 3 years of residency is way too much. The cost of medical school is insanely expensive and getting accepted is scarce in U.S schools and in schools abroad. As for me being so bad in chemistry and physics I knew this was impossible. I became interested in English after I had taken a library skills class ( was unnecessary, it turns out) which is required (library skills work course was required, I didn't have to take a class). Well, that class I had picked a topic on pesticides. I basically did research on pesticides for the entire semester and wrote about it as well. That is when I thought, that if I am writing about a subject that is in the science field, yet I am not a science major, is awesome! I did not even think of that.

 

                     I have completed one semester in English, and this current semester is my second semester. After that I graduate in June 2015. It is odd, since I just changed my major, but the thing with English major is I can take as many classes as I want (technically 6) without having a prerequisite course. There is no order in the course taking like in biology or architecture. So overall I started at UB in 2011 and now I finish in 2015. In the end it took me 4 years to get my bachelors, including the skipped semester. But then again I learned 3 different subjects. I am excited and nervous all in one. I currently am jobless, I don't have a car either, or my driving license. My plan was to have my license by the time I graduate, but due to the crazy amounts of snow this year, it was impossible to even walk outside at times.
                 I used to feel regret for changing my major so many times, and I felt guilty for wasting money on classes, but now I feel that its okay. It happened for a reason. Later I found out many other students have had similar situations as me. Some students that I started architecture with also changed their majors. Then some students completely dropped out all together. I was happy that I didn't give up. That is what is most important. To just keep going. Life is tough, and I know I faced some serious hardships, but in the end it get better. If anything this is only the beginning. I will be going out into the "real world", as most people call it. In college there is a secure network, where you have advisors, professors, counselors, and this community where everything is available and encouraged. There are workshops, job fairs, career services provided in the colleges.

Dorm Lounge: Where I used to dorm.

                 At this point I am trying to figure out my options. I was planning to apply to some jobs in New York City and move there. But I don't even have a car or my license. I don't have much money to move anywhere especially in the oh so expensive N.Y.C. I thought of getting a masters in business (MBA), but I don't know what I would do with that. I thought of going to NYU, but again is not as solid sounding for me. So now I have decided that I will try to find a job here in Buffalo, and in the mean time take the 2 summer classes. I will most definitely get my license hopefully by June or July or as soon as all the snow has melted. Then I will just work and save. I might start my Masters program in UB as well. I want to become an English teacher. Although, it is not necessary and I could just get a teachers certificate to become a qualified and registered teacher, it is better to have a masters. Most people interested in teaching get their masters in education or equivilant to the subject that they desire to teach, depending on the grade level that they want to teach as well. I want to be a teacher for middle schools and high schools, so that is why I am getting my masters in education (M.Ed). It takes 2 years to get the masters degree. A teachers certification takes about 9 months, which is basically a year. That is why I thought, why not just do an extra year and get my masters?? Since teachers that have a masters degree automatically get paid more, they are more likely to get hired before those that only have a teaching certificate, and there are other departments that a person can work in that is not just in teaching. Plus, I will have my masters degree.
               
   
                               The Winter of Buffalo.. Almost Over.~

UB South Campus, this winter 2015

               Well there is more though, I feel overwhelmed about graduating, but also that a bit sad. I did not get to travel as I have wished, and still want to achieve. I thought of teaching English in other countries. To teach English abroad one must have the TESOL (Teaching English to speakers of other languages) or TEFL (Teaching English as Foreign Language) or ESL (English as a second language) or even TESL (Teaching English as a second language. This takes about from what I searched online 4 weeks?? So I could do this as well, while applying for my masters. I just learned that I passed the deadline for fall submission, which was in February. So now I will apply for the spring semester which the deadline is November 1. So I will have some time from July to November, and even after until spring semester starts, which is maybe January? Not sure how the masters semesters work, or if the semesters start at same time as the undergraduate semesters?? Definitely will have time to save up for a car. So this is one option that I have created.

                   My other option is teaching English abroad for a year or two. I applied to Peace Corps about 3 weeks ago. I was looking for a program that would pay for flight and living expenses, and that did not require the TESOL, or TESL, or TEFL, or any of the other stuff. I hate typing all capital letters. Anyways, so I applied. Now this blog post is crazy long. I think my next post I will discuss Peace Corps.