Updates (That is finally unrelated to food!)

I was just scanning through my recent entries and realized that the focal points were mostly on food. Well, it's kinda sad to say this but that's what my life has been rotating around for the past 1.5 months!

Okay, that aside, it's time to share a bit of other updates. So I did attempt to school scout. I managed to identify a couple of courses in Columbia that I was interested in but fumbled when I realized that I needed at least two reccomedation letters. A couple of people did pop up my mind, but the hassle of asking them and the possible inconvenience to them made me hesitant to ask. Another struggle I had was whether I'm studying for the sake of studying or it's because I really wanted to. I guess I kinda realized that if I were to pursue my masters, that would imply that I'm definitely going to re-enter the workforce in time to come. It's not that I don't want to work anymore in the future (it would be nice of course, LOL), but it's more of the possible baggage and expectation from my parents and people around me that make me oblige to return to work and put my masters in good use. And it scares me that I might end up in something I don't enjoy once again.

Another repelling factor was none than the school fees. I know that grad school isn't cheap but I certainly wasn't expecting it to be THAT expensive. It would cost approximately USD40,000 for a year of studies in Columbia and possibly twice as much in NYU. Insane isn't it? And this is extremely discouraging considering that I would like to venture into non-profit organizations in future which would not justify the investment at all. (Yes, I've an urge to return to my roots, finally..)

After some thoughts, I have decided to shelf this aside for now. Meanwhile, I've signed up for volunteering opportunities with a couple of agencies. Hopefully I would be accepted and put my time here to some use.

On a good note, I'm having a better sense of direction of what I would like to do in life. At least I'm able to spend the remaining of my stay exploring my options and hopefully, settle on something before I head back.

I guess I'm prouder of who I am now than I was a year ago, having a better sense of direction and of course, not being stuck in something I don't enjoy. So that's a good start I guess and I'm just hoping that things would now fall nicely in place.

All the best to me.

- Greetings from KeY's iPhone!