The Year-End: Reflecting Back, Looking Forward, & Running Away

How has another year already come and gone?

I've mentioned in past posts that I often identify with old people. Usually this is in comical reference to my knitting habit or love for naps and warm weather, but this sentiment has never been more true than at times like these, where I start to feel so, so old. In a year's time, I'll have to say goodbye to this blog, to the Career Center, and to Tufts - but how can this be true if I just got here yesterday?

Before Sarah McLaughlin starts playing in the background, I'll drop the sappy tone and replace it with an optimistic one. My final post last year was very much a "year in review" - I talked about the strides I'd made professionally and personally, the topics I'd covered in my blog posts, and so on. This time around, I think I'll look to the future instead of the past (TBD for next year's finale post - it'll probably just be lots of overemotional professions of love for the Career Center's fridge).

I'll start with my summer plans, which I know you've all been anxiously awaiting to hear. I'm thrilled to be working in the Starks Lab for the second summer in a row, this time as a fully-funded Tufts Summer Scholar. I'll be conducting a study that investigates paper wasps as cryptic vectors of disease in grapes - a project that has great biological, ecological, and economic importance. I'm so excited to be sticking around Tufts this summer, and to be pursuing my passion for scientific research. I'll also be preparing for, and hopefully taking, a certain four-letter standardized test that rhymes with shmem-cat; I'm less excited for that, but it'll be a great learning experience.

And now onto the big thing: senior year. It looms before me like a terrifying wave of emotions - from excitement to melancholy to nostalgia to complete confusion (the last one is basically my normal mental state at this point, so at least there's some familiar territory). I'm excited about a lot of things - reuniting with friends currently abroad, rounding out my time at Tufts, and making every moment count. But, with senior year comes the dreaded post-college planning. After years of blogging about it, it's time to put my money where my mouth is and figure out what I'm doing after the cap is thrown.

Don't worry - I have a few ideas. One route that I'm very seriously pursuing is time abroad, whether it's to earn a master's degree, teach English in another country, join up with the Peace Corps, or something I haven't even thought of yet. Everything is still in the very early planning stages, but going abroad is something I've always wanted to do, and not doing so while in college has come to be one of my biggest regrets. There will surely be more posts to follow on this subject!

I'm also considering my local options. One of the greatest parts about going to Tufts, in my opinion, is the easy access to Boston and all of its perks. For me, these perks include Boston's world-renowned medical-industrial complex, which boasts job after job for someone looking for experience in the sciences. While going abroad is definitely on my priority list, I'm also strongly considering working in the city for a year or two before transitioning into grad school. There are a lot of pros for this route: it'd definitely be a smoother transition into the post-college world, I'd be close to family and friends in the area, and it'll make applying to American graduate programs much easier (I'm not sure that I'm prepared to apply to med school from the other side of an ocean). I'd also be able to chip away at my student loans, and save up for the next crippling wave of debt once I start school again.

Overall, there's a lot to which I'm looking forward, and a lot from which I'd rather run. It's certainly been a roller-coaster ride so far, and as I lurch upwards in preparation for one final loop-de-loop, I'm feeling lots of things. For now, I'm excited to be staying on with the Career Center, again as both a blogger and a Career Fellow, and to be keeping you all updated on my trials, tribulations, and awkward social interactions for one more year. Stay tuned for posts, gifs, well-timed Friends references, and the gripping conclusion to a story now two years in the making.

Until next time,
Sean Boyden
Class of 2017