Horizon Lines

Horizon Line

A point where your life changes to such an extent that you cannot possibly see past it, imagine who and where you will be after

Cliché start to a travel blog: Ahoj, from the Czech Republic. Now to answer the number one question I have gotten, “how am I feeling about everything?”

This picture, taken in Washington, USA this past summer, best encapsulates my current feelings. I feel like I am standing on the edge of the world looking into the unknown. I can’t help thinking about this concept I read about somewhere called horizon lines. A horizon line is a point where your life changes to such an extent that you cannot possibly see past it, imagine who and where you will be after.

The fact that I am at a horizon line became abundantly clear to me when I recently talked to my friend Rebecca about my career options after Fulbright, seeing as I have two amazing job offers to pick from. Rebecca said that by the end of my Fulbright I will know what I want to do, but unfortunately I cannot wait that long to decide. I am going to have to make a decision today for the person I will be in ten months. My six months studying abroad in college completely changed my life, who I am, and what path I am on. I can only imagine ten months in the Czech Republic having a similar effect.

Studying abroad was the first real horizon line in my life. When I think back on every opportunity and success, every failure and heartbreak, every change of thinking or perspective, and every new and impactful person in my life over the past two years I can tie it back to those six months. From breaking up with my boyfriend of two years to finding out my family was moving to Seattle and being ready to embrace the adventure, from coming up with the idea for my honors thesis to wanting to work for Mighty Well, from having the courage to not go down the public accounting route to learning about and applying to Fulbright, it all comes back to those six months abroad.

Though I know I am at a horizon line and know that things never go as planned, I have an idea of what I want to accomplish during these ten months. My number one priority is being a good teacher and providing a value added experience for my students. I also want to take full advantage of my time in the Czech Republic and build meaningful relationships with people here. On top of this, I also have a bunch of secondary goals. I hope to use this time to build up good habits and skills that hopefully will follow me throughout my life, such as doing yoga a couple times a week, reading more books, learning how to cook, and learning to keep my living space clean (which for people who know me is no easy task). I also plan to work on some passion projects that have been rummaging around in my head without the time to be pursued; I want to get my honors thesis published, I want to create business plans for a couple start up ideas I have had, I want to continue working on this blog, and I want to further develop my technical skills for my post Fulbright job.

I have priorities, plans, and goals for Fulbright, but I know that these alone are not going to be where the life changing impact lies. All summer I could just feel myself approaching a horizon line. I knew I was in the “before” of this defining moment of my life with no idea of what the “after” would look like. On BRIC, I had a conversation with Professor Platt that I think about often. One of the things she said to me is that she has seen the biggest impact of BRIC happen months after the program ended and that the impact is not necessarily one big change but a thousand little ones. I don’t know what the impact of Fulbright will be, when it will happen, and how large the effect will be, but I know I am at a horizon line and I am excited and open to what is to come.