What we know is almost nothing at all.

There are so many things I'd like to do with my life. If I recall correctly, I have already recognized this problem on this blog. And I've definitely told many friends about possible life plans. But I just want to put all my thoughts in one spot.

1- Teach with ILP for the next couple years. I wouldn't just stay in China; I'd also go to Russia and Thailand, hopefully. Maybe make it around to Mexico and Lithuania. I'd just do that for 2-3 years, and then come back home and finish out school and get a job, and probably live in the country on a permanent basis after that.

2- Mentioned in my previous post, take several (4-6) years off school, and go back to China. This plan does not involve teaching with ILP for more than one more semester, two at the max, and then I'd just come home and work, and save up money. Then finish up school.

3- I would consider not taking off school, just going and finishing it up, but still going back to China this next coming spring semester. I would want to keep my chemistry major, but I'd also want to write books in my spare time, which I really believe I have the potential to excel at. It would definitely be just a side thing-- I'd still want to do forsensics.

4- Continue with school now, finish up asap with my chemistry and criminalistics degree, then move to New York (where I assume I wouldn't have an abnormally difficult time finding a job). I'm sure I'd end up living there for a while, then settling down somewhere else. The big difference between this plan and plan number 3 is that this one wouldn't have anything to do with going back to China to teach.

5- Go to school and continue with the degree I have now (China may or may not be an option here) and then get a teaching license, so I can teach chemistry in high school.

6- Merge plans 4 and 5 together, so I can teach and still actually apply my knowledge to the real world. That way, I'd also be specifically going against the "Those who can do, and those who can't teach." Plus, I like to think I'd make a decent teacher.

7- Transfer to BYU for a semester to take Brandon Sanderson's (author of Mistborn, which is quite possibly the best story I've ever read. It haunted me for weeks, literally) creative writing class. There I would hopefully get to learn how he comes up with such amazing stories, and it would help me very much in my plan to write stories. At that point, I would only take one or two classes a semester back here at Metro, until my writing took off and I could accept being a novelist as a career. And if I were to find that I can't make it as a writer (sad), then I would still be in school and I'd just finish that up really quick and turn to plan 3/4 asap.

I realize each of these plans have flaws, but they also each have passion in them. They are each something I aspire, in some part, to fulfill.

They are all also incomplete, just quick descriptions of some way I could see my life going, but there's more behind them. They each also include places to move (because though I love Colorado, I want to move to other places), and traveling is definitely going to be involved in each of them (I love the world. I can't stop exploring it now; I've only just begun).

I am also aware that these plans involve making different amounts of money, or taking longer to go to school, or not graduating at all. But wherever my life goes, as long as I'm doing something I'm happy with, I don't actually care if I make less money. I don't care if I don't have a degree. I will make it work.

Right at the moment, I'm really digging plans number 6 and 7. I am highly considering both of them.

I've got some decisions to make.

What if I'm such a nerd, I'd miss classes?

You know what I really aspire to do?

To just stop going to school for a couple years and instead work for a while (obviously not in my career) and write stories. And I'd go back to school and get my degree by the time I'm 30. Then I could teach chemistry in high school part time and do my forensic stuff part time, as well.

I've already been going to school for 4 semesters, and I'd start junior status when I started up again. I could have 6 years of freedom, and then spend 2-3 more years at school, and be graduated by the time I'm 28 or 29. 6 years! Think of all the stories I could write. Think of the places I could go and the things I could do. And if I got bored with that life, it's not like school is going anywhere. I could always go back.

Meanwhile, with my job, I could be saving up money to pay for college, and when I finally did go back, it would be 100% because I wanted to be back at school. 100% because I want to go places with my life, instead of doing it because it's what you're supposed to do after high school. Admittedly, that's not the only reason I'm at school now, but it's sure one of them. An increasingly prominent reason.

Just something I've been considering for a few months.

Can someone explain to me...

Why exactly are you not supposed to speak ill of the dead? I'm just kinda curious (thanks to this book that Berserk is letting me borrow).

I mean, if someone was a really awful person in life, is it not a good thing to examine their life and find out where they went wrong, then strive to not do that because their wrong choices led to A, B and C, and those things made them a really awful/unbearable/miserable person? I suppose I can understand not just straight up saying bad things and turning their life into a bad memory, but there are constructive ways to go about criticizing someone, yes?

But since "speaking ill of the dead" is such a no-no, most people would hesitate to say anything bad. Example: Michael Jackson. Toward the end of his life, people were not exactly happy with him. Then he goes and kicks the bucket, and everything on the news is commemorating the big loss we've suffered. The only time you hear someone talk about his faults is in a really derogatory way, like in jokes. And that's not really the kind of criticizing I think we should be doing...

The book mostly has examples from history. But yes. If someone could explain this to me, I'd really like to have the knowledge.