The Oregon Trail

In a little over a year from now, I might be moving to Oregon.

I'm usually not a very superstitious person, but last week I got a series of signs or nudges or hints - whatever you want to call them - that have led me along my own personal Oregon trail (and it's almost as cool as the high-tech Oregon trail computer program we got to play in grade school)...

1. Over winter break I started looking into PhD programs as part of my options for after I get my master's degree. My dad advised me that if I think I might want to get a PhD (and thus do research and teach at a college at some point in my career), then it would be best if I just did it right after my master's and not wait until a few years down the line when I'll be used to working and earning a decent living. (He has his master's, and he fell just a few hours short of his PhD...he had a wife and little kids and was working full-time during graduate school, which is why he advises that I do it before I have added responsibilities).

2. I looked at programs in January, but wasn't sure if that was really the route I wanted to go or not. My first semester of grad school wasn't very fun, so I wasn't sure if I wanted to tack on another 2-3 years. So, I put those plans on the backburner.

3. This semester of grad school has been much better - I actually enjoy what I'm doing and am excited about my thesis.

4. Last week, I took the online quiz at findyourspot.com and Portland, Oregon came up as my number one city to live in. Several other cities in Oregon were in my top ten as well. I thought that maybe I should go visit there since I've never been.

5. Around the same time last week, I started doing some online research about literary journalism, a field that I'm interested in. I found a really good website about it and bookmarked it on my internet browser.

6. The next day, in my graduate assistant meeting I have to attend every week, the graduate director talked to us about PhD programs. She said the same thing my dad said: "If you think you might want to get a PhD at some point, then do it sooner rather than later. If you think you'll want to go back to school after you've been working for a few years, think again." She also said that the University of Oregon has a good PhD program in journalism.

7. KU does not offer a PhD in journalism, but even if they did, it would be better for me to go elsewhere...apparently it looks better on a resume/CV to have degrees from different universities. That's what the grad director said, anyhow.

8. A few minutes after that meeting, I went to my computer and found that page about literary journalism I had bookmarked the night before. Turns out the webpage is from the graduate program in literary journalism at the University of Oregon.

9. The University of Oregon is located in Eugene, which is a city that was in my top five list. It's about 1.5 hours south of Portland (by car).

10. At this point, I decided to research the PhD program there and looked at their graduate studies website. At their program, the PhD students do a teaching fellowship (and thus get tuition paid and a stipend), plus I would be able to do an emphasis in literary journalism, and they have one of the best programs for that in the country.

11. I emailed Amanda to see if she would be interested in taking a long-weekend trip to Portland (and also rent a car and drive down to Eugene, where the university is, while we're there).

12. She emailed back and said that she had already looked into their master's in arts administration program at the university, and that she would be able to go on a trip there in late August.

13. I told my parents about it and they are excited for me, although my mom did the mother's guilt thing about me moving so far away. My dad said that Oregon is a bunch of hippies surronded by rednecks. Awesome - sounds like Lawrence.

14. We have planned a trip to Portland for August 24-28.

15. And the most compelling sign of them all: Colbert interviewed the congresswoman from the fifth district on his show last week. Guess where the fifth district is? Yep, it's in Oregon (and Portland is included in the district). Now if that's not a sign, then I tell you what...

posted by elizabeth @ 12:24 PM