In less than two months, I will be boarding a plane home. 50 days. That’s it. It’s crazy to think that this year of traveling around the world is quickly coming to an end. So much preparation and anticipation and now we are almost done. But, we can talk about that in another blog. Here, I want to share some exciting news about what I will be doing after the race! I’ve written out a detailed story of how it all came about. More so for me so I can remember it in the future, but I thought I’d share in case you want to read a story about God’s goodness. I’ve also written a short version in case you don’t want to read the whole thing. 😉
Short version:
I have been accepted to graduate school at Missouri State where I will get my Master’s degree in Technical and Professional Writing! I have also been offered a position as a Teaching Assistant where I will teach three sections of GEP 101, which is the first year foundations class for incoming freshmen. This will provide a fee waiver for my Master’s degree and a monthly stipend. It’s the best of both worlds!
Long version:
So, here’s the backstory of how this all came about. Let’s jump back to my junior year of college. One of the requirements for my dietetics degree was a class called Technical Writing (ENG 321, to be exact). I took it the spring semester of my junior year and absolutely loved it. In that class, we made resumes and cover letters, white papers, and a detailed 15-page how-to manual. Sounds boring, but it really hit that logistical, detailed side in me and I loved it. I considered changing my major, but I was too far in with dietetics.
During my senior year of college, I inquired a bit about what it would look like to get my Master’s degree in Technical Writing. After talking with a professor, I discovered that I needed 12 hours of undergraduate level foreign language before I could be accepted into the program. Even though I was not seriously considering it at the time, I decided to make the effort to ensure that my dual-enrolled Spanish classes from high school were transferred to my undergraduate transcript—something I wouldn’t be able to do after I graduated. From there, I graduated college and then started my dietetic internship the next fall. As I completed my dietetic internship, I got accepted to the World Race and had decided that I was done with school. School was hard and I was tired of it.
Last August, I left for the race and had no desire to think about any post-race plans. Before leaving home, people were already asking what I was going to do once I came home in June. Are you going to work as a dietitian? Go back out on the field? Go to grad school? Move to Africa? Live at home with your parents for the rest of your life? I had no idea. And I knew that thinking about it then was pointless because God was about to do some amazing things through me on the race. Whenever thoughts about what I would do after the race came to mind, I simply threw them out the window. I just didn’t want to think about it.
Okay, so knowing my mindset about post-race plans, let’s continue on with the story. Last November when my team was in Cyprus, we had the opportunity to work with a ministry that creates music videos to reach people via satellite in the Middle East. The man who runs the ministry said he needed some administrative help in writing a newsletter and making a website. As I was working with him, I rediscovered my love for writing. It was in that time that the Lord started bringing back memories from my technical writing class in college and the thoughts I had about getting my Master’s degree in technical writing. I did a little bit of research, but I pushed the thoughts aside because I didn’t want to commit to anything until the end of the race.
The next month, we were in Jordan and the Lord brought up thoughts again about going back to school. There was one week in particular that I had pretty much decided to scrap the idea and stop thinking about it. And right when I had made that decision, my technical writing professor from undergrad randomly emailed me. I had sent her email before going on the race, as we had a good relationship, but she never replied until that week in December. WHOA. That’s so weird. I felt the Lord nudging me to not scrap the idea, but to continue pursuing it and watch Him open the doors.
Now, if I did get my Master’s degree, I knew that I wanted an opportunity to work on campus where my degree would get paid for. I knew of an open graduate assistant position that worked with the dietetic internship I had completed the year before, so I inquired a bit about that. My technical writing professor also sent me an ad for a Teaching Assistant position for GEP 101. I knew that if I did this, I would want the one with the dietetic internship, so I didn’t even open the attachment my professor sent for the GEP 101 position.
From there, everyone back home went on Christmas break, so I took a break from thinking about all of this again. When we got to Israel at the beginning of January, I felt the Lord nudge me again in this direction, but again, I tried to throw it out the window. Part of it was fear in going back to school knowing how difficult it would be and part of it was fear in settling my future plans.
And then, once we got to Georgia, the nudge was too strong to ignore and I knew that deadlines would soon be approaching. I decided to take a leap of faith and apply. I asked the Lord to only open these doors if this was Him and to close them if He had something better. And I would be completely content either way.
So, in Georgia, I wrote my personal statement for grad school. My teammates were amazing and helped edit it with me. At debrief in Georgia, I had a Skype call with the head of the Writing Graduate Department at MSU. And then once we got to Armenia, I completed the application. As part of the application, I had to submit some writings samples, which were all on my old computer at home. So, I had to have my mom send me some of my writing assignments from undergrad.
At this same time, I reached out to two professors and asked if they would write reference letters for me. They both agreed—however, one professor shared with me that the graduate assistant position with the dietetic internship had already been filled. I was minutes away from hitting the “submit application” button when I found out that my one potential way of paying for school was no longer viable. I was a little disheartened, but I decided to go ahead and submit it and see if the Lord opened up any other doors.
Now, back to grad school—I was told that one requirement for the program is that students must have had the equivalent of a minor in writing from undergrad—something that I definitely did not have since I was a science major. I was also told that they let students in conditionally, but sometimes they have to take some extra courses to catch up with everyone else. I told God that if I did this, I didn’t want to take extra courses. If this was really Him leading me in this direction, I asked Him to make it a smooth and easy process.
The day after I submitted my application for grad school and had found out that the one GA position was full, God brought to mind the position that my technical writing professor had shared with me back in December—the one with the email attachment that I never opened. So, I opened the attachment and found that the position was for a Teaching Assistant that would work with First Year Programs at MSU and teach three sections of the introduction to college class. The stipend was higher with this position than the other one I had wanted, too. The date I opened it was February 15th. The application was due February 16th. I had everything I needed—my resume, three references, and the GA application form. The only thing I was missing was a cover letter. So that day, I went on a walk with my friend Meghan and told her about this opportunity. Her exact words: “Melanie, if the only thing holding you back from applying is a cover letter, then I think you should do it.” After getting home that day, I wrote a nice cover letter and sent in my application for the position. I honestly did not expect to hear anything back as they wanted someone with at least two years of teaching experience—another thing I didn’t have.
A week later, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw that I had an email asking about an interview for the TA position. I was ecstatic! I seriously did not expect anything from that. And I hadn’t even been accepted to grad school yet! So, I agreed to an interview for the following week on Wednesday.
The next week, on Tuesday (the day before my TA position interview), I again woke up in the middle of the night and saw an email saying that I had been accepted to grad school! And—I didn’t have to take any extra writing courses! The next day, I had my first interview for the TA position and they asked if I had been accepted to grad school, which I was able to say YES! Because it literally happened the day before. The interview went well, but they said that they were still interviewing other candidates and that it would be about a week or so before I heard anything back.
Two days later, my team was getting on a night train to head back to Georgia—our first stop on our long travel week to Kazakhstan. I was able to get my phone unlocked and put a local SIM in my phone, so I had data on my phone. As we were getting on the train, I got an email asking for a second interview for the TA position. We scheduled one for the following week when we were in Baku, Azerbaijan. I just want to point out that having data on my phone was of the Lord, because had I not, I wouldn’t have seen that email for a few days and then I wouldn’t have been able to schedule my interview for Monday, which was the only set day we were in Baku before boarding a ferry.
Monday night came and I had my second interview. About 20 minutes before the interview, I sat on my bed and thought through some potential questions and came up with answers to them. THESE WERE THE EXACT QUESTIONS THEY ASKED ME! Seriously, how crazy is that? The second interview went really well and I was told that I would find out in a few days. On Wednesday, we boarded a ferry across the Caspian Sea that lasted for about 30 hours. As soon as we got to our hotel early Friday morning in Aktau, I got WiFi and had an email offering me the position! And I accepted!
I have accepted the position in confidence knowing that the Lord has opened these doors and has incredible things ahead for me. This TA position combines several things I love—teaching and mentoring! And getting my Master’s degree in technical writing will set me up well to do more things that I love with the goal of being able to someday work for a nonprofit or missions organization and write for them.
It’s funny how I came on the race not wanting to think about what I would do afterwards, and even though the Lord had to bring it up several times throughout the course of several months in different countries, He brought it all together in His perfect timing. I am very excited for this new season that He has for me. He has been so, so good to me.
