In less than a month I will be leaving to live in Malaysia for 10 months. I will be living in Kuala Terengganu and teaching English and American culture at a local secondary school 20 hours a week. I am excited, but very nervous for this adventure to start. In order to help me make the most of the time I decided to make some goals for my Fulbright. (If you continue to read this blog will learn how much I love to make lists. As we speak I have 5 sticky notes on my computer screen all with different kinds of lists.) I have created concrete goals so that I will know when I have achieved them, because my favorite thing after creating lists is crossing things off lists. So without further to do CHELSEA’S GOALS for 2012:
Goal 1- Be able to speak Malaysian at a professional conversation level
In other words, I need to be able to pass a proficiency test by the time I come back in order to graduate from the University of Denver. If I do not, I will have to attempt Spanish AGAIN. Spanish and I are not friends. So this is the most important of my goals and also the one I am most nervous about.
Goal 2- Live like a local
It’s my personal philosophy that if I’m going to have a career in international development then I must really learn what it is like to live like they do, not just live around the surface of their world. Plus figuring out why people who are different from myself do what they do is THE main reason I became interested in international relations in the first place. I’m not quite sure what ‘living like a local’ will entail at this point, but I’m sure I will find it difficult, especially the eating fish part.
Goal 3- Complete the survey and write my SRP
SRP stands for ‘Significant Research Paper’. My statistics professor, Teresa Dalton, has agreed to help me with this endeavor. Currently my plan is to take the Each-For model and apply it to Malaysia. This would involve writing my own survey, collecting interviews, and then analyzing my results. I am beyond interested in this topic, but I’ve never done “grown up” research before. So this could get interesting. For those of you who are interested in learning more about EACH-For check out www.each-for.eu or just wait until I write up a description in a later post.
Goal 4- Earn an ‘A’ in Kuhn’s migration class
This course is being offered this coming Fall. I am currently set up to take it through email and skype. Again, migration is a fascinating topic and I really want to learn more about the patterns of South East Asian migration, which should help me with my SRP. A side goal of this is that I would like to have a grown up job before I turn 26 and taking classes while I’m abroad will help me graduate faster.
Goal 5- Create a photo book of Malaysians interacting with their environment
This is a lifetime goal of mine, and when better than now? I would like to capture people interacting with nature as it is now. Their land as a country on the verge of high levels of industrialization and highly vulnerable to climate change will never quite be the same as it will be in 2012. Plus I do not wan to lose and I do want to continue to improve my photography skills.
Goal 6- Answer the question “Is this what I want to do with my life?”
Dr. Hulme and Dr. Lorenz have kept me very busy the past 4 1/2 years working towards this future. I love them immensely for what they have pushed me to accomplish, but I haven’t stopped to contemplate any alternatives to the plan since I sat down in my first Lorenz class, pre-term freshman year. This is my time to do it.
