The 3 Year Plan

Some months ago, when I'd decided I was going to do something exciting this year, I also decided what I would do after that exciting year was over and voila! I had a two year plan!  I haven't planned that far ahead since my 18-month mission...which was less than two years, so...I've never planned that far ahead since starting a uni degree!  Which I finished 6 years ago, just to paint the picture.  My two year plan was this:  1. Go to Japan to teach English January 2012 - January 2013.  2. Return to Hobart and commence 1 year TAFE course (or "polytechnic" as it's now called), Diploma of Laboratory Technology in February 2013.  I guess you could say I had a 3rd year planned:  2014: Get a job in science!

But alas, when it became apparent that I would be leaving later than planned, and thus returning too late to begin the course, my two year plan fell apart.  All I had was a 15 month plan, followed by 10 months of random time-filling work, and then maybe the course, but by then I was hoping to have moved on from my home town of Tassie.

So tonight when I happened to come across this blog (thanks Lisa!) about overseas language courses, I decided to explore the idea.  You see, I love languages, I would love to know lots!  But the two I want to learn fluently the most are Japanese and Estonian, which - as most of you probably know - is my mother's native language.  I'd love to pass on this part of my heritage to my future children, as it is very important to me.  I started teaching myself a few years ago and can form random sentences such as "Kas see on puu?" (Is this a tree?), but not any real skill.   In 2010 I decided to visit the motherland (more to come about this soon), and loved it, and being there just 3 weeks I found my skills improved and thought how great it would be to stay 3 months or something and especially to do a course there.  But the course I looked at just seemed so expensive for just a few weeks!  I gave that idea a miss pretty quickly.

But tonight I thought it seemed like a rather grand idea, as I would love to go back soon and would need something to do while I waited to do my course in Feb in Hobart (similar courses I've looked at on mainland Aus all take 2 years...no thanks!).  And perhaps my desire to do that seemed to make the cost of it insignificant compared to the benefits.  So I've decided to pencil in a summer Estonian course for 2013 after I'm back from Japan.  Way to live it up, right?

This makes the months until my next plan, the Diploma of Laboratory Technology, seem not-so-long and bearable.  The diploma will give me hands on technical experience in many fields of science, making me (finally) employable!  The feedback I've received from recent applications is my selection criteria is fantastic, BUT...I have no technical experience and graduated quite some time ago now... so I'm hoping this fixes the problem.  Then I can finally make use of my science degree!! Woohoo!!  I love science.  I really do.  

So that makes my 3 year plan as follows:

2012: Work for Interac in Japan

2013: Estonian Summer Language Course + a bit more travel

2014: Diploma of Laboratory Technology in Hobart

As for my plans for 2015, well...I'll let you put the pieces together...

Okay a little too far perhaps...but hey - a girl can dream!  Maybe in a few more years...