It has arrived. Less than 99 days until I graduate and I am ready, to some degree. 

I am ready to graduate and to not be overly busy with classes, leadership, mentoring, etc. I am tired. I was hoping for an easy, by easy I mean not as stressful, final semester, but at the end of the day, I am proud to hold the leadership roles that I have. I only wish for more time in one day, is that too much to ask for? In terms of post-undergraduate life, I am not worry at the moment. Perhaps I am overly optimistic and I am certain I will secure a job or graduate school. Who knows? Maybe in a future post, I will be frantically searching for a job at the last minute. I do have one interview for a graduate school in Boston which I am excited about, but I did receive one decline from a graduate school in Chicago. In terms of jobs, I am searching, seeing what is out there, and continuing to decide whether I will migrate back South to the land of warm weather and sweet tea, not unsweetened or raspberry tea. On a complete tangent, why is this consider an alternative to sweet tea everywhere I go? The irony in looking for jobs focus on history is that they require previous professional experience. I need more professional experience, yet if this is a prerequisite to 99% of the jobs I am looking at how will I ever gain this experience? Yes, I could apply to a multitude of internships, but majority of these internships are part-time and unpaid. I also need to eat and pay bills, so this route rarely works. Again, the woes of being a college senior. 

Despite my readiness to jump into the “real world” outside of my college, I am not ready to depart from my research. Although the Flowers family project is great, I feel as if it only connects to my college because they were my institution’s first black students. There story does not connect to other universities and would probably hold little importance there. It will be a sad day when a researcher is removed from her research or finishes the Flowers’ story. However, this will not happen anytime soon. I can completely finish Rachel’s story in 2052 when I am 60 years old. I understand and respect the government’s 72 year long release period after each census year, but it is such a roadblock for genealogist, researchers, and families digging into the past. There should be exceptions to the rule. I cannot wait until I am 60 years old to complete Rachel’s story, I will be dead by the time the last census records for Vincent are released! All jokes aside, I will seriously be dead or over 100 years of age. 

At the moment, I am preparing for the 2014 Center of Public Humanities Symposium tomorrow afternoon. I will be presenting on I, Too, Sing America: Lessons of Cultural Resilience from Messiah College Alumni Rachel Flowers and Vincent Flowers. I am nervous. I cringe every time I pass by the classroom I am presenting in. I am a good public speaker, but everyone is looking forward to this presentation which means it must be good. Pressure is on and I have less than 24 hours to finish preparing for this. Outside of preparing for this presentation, I am beginning to write the Flowers’ biography, finalize the website, and the logistics behind accomplishing that. I am still looking for a surviving member of the Flowers family as well as finding more photos. I learning ArcGIS, Microsoft Access, coding, research methods, and even learning how to navigate Google Earth. Their story awaits to be written and I am ready to begin. 

Until the next post!

Christina