The Start of Something New

The past two days have been spent at American University's School of International Service Orientation. Having just arrived in the Washington DC area, I had very little time to adjust to my new home. And so these past several days have been really hectic, and something tells me that the situation is not going to get any better once school starts next week.

However, I am officially a graduate student now that I have completed my orientation and have loads of reading already waiting for me. It is at times exciting but also, at times, very overwhelming. One thing that was repeated quite often throughout the two-day orientation was that I could no longer operate with an undergraduate frame of thought. I have two years to complete my program and not nearly enough time to just dabble in different interests. There seemed to be a tepid warning to us, masters students, to quickly find a professional passion (as one professor called it) and dive right in. So far that doesn't bode well with me, one of many professional interests in the field of international relations.

Aside from that, I am seeing God's hand at work in my life. A few things show me that God is seeing me through this new chapter in life. A few months ago, when I realized how expensive the total cost of graduate school would be, I became desperate in trying to find anything that would pay me (at the very least to put some dollars in my pockets). I had applied for faculty assistantships that were available but had not heard from the school, and so I feared the worst. However, a few weeks ago, after leaving Ann Arbor, I received an email indicating that I, in fact, did receive a faculty assistantship position, and that the faculty I would be assisting is the current dean of the school and whom I had talked to briefly before. The pay is not all that awesome, but the mere fact that I get to work closely with the dean of the school counts for something.

Another area in which I see God orchestrating things is in the way God brings international students into my life. I'm trying to learn how to be more outwardly social in gatherings, and during orientation, one of the unsaid things is to go and meet your classmates and professors. Often times, fear would hold me back from just introducing myself to a bunch of strangers, but somehow I got to interact with some international students from Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Korea, and Japan. I don't know what it is, but I had always had an affinity towards international students, particularly those from East Asian countries. And that affinity followed me all the way to Washington DC. I'm trying my best to build relationships with these students. One thing I want to refrain from is to approach any relationship that I may build in the next two years on an agenda. It will undoubtedly be a challenge to share my faith with my classmates, but first and foremost, I want them to see Jesus in who I am.


Overall, although I am exhausted from the past two days, I am excited on the start of a new chapter in my life. As cliche as this may sound, I feel like the possibilities are endless. To a certain extent, perhaps what they say is right, that one person can make a difference. I hope that by the end of my graduate studies, I will be ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work in solving one or more problems. But until then, I do not wish to repeat my first year of undergrad when I completely blew off my classes. I'm excited to hit the books again and learn the theories and the practicals of international politics.