An update of sorts

University

I really don’t feel like I’ve had nearly enough education. This isn’t saying that I’m not happy with my department (I love my department) or with the quality of education at UB (it’s very good) but I know that there’s so much more to learn, so much more that I want to learn, and perhaps this is the part of me that’s bitter that I’ve now reached (and am in the process of completing) the highest level of Arabic offered at UB and I’m thirsty, hungry for more and they aren’t offering it and I know what they gave me, is no where near enough.

I’ve gotten some flack and some comments for deciding not to go directly into graduate school (not from my family, but from a few peers)…but I’m 22, I’m debt free…and there’s a world out there to educate me and I think it’s time to learn from it rather than from those who experienced it and want to tell me about their experience in the halls of academia. There’s so many people I haven’t gotten the chance to meet yet and so many lessons I have to learn, and all with so little time. Life is painfully short and the clock has always been my enemy, such a sinister thing clocks are…though that’s probably why they feature so heavily and prominently into Sherlock Holmes lore (in media, anyway).

I went home last weekend (and let me tell you, flying on jetBlue was a peach), on the trip, however, I was able to work out with my parent’s how the next few years are going to go (…the best laid plans of mice and men…):

I graduate this coming Fall (and this is the most anti-climactic feeling I’ve ever experienced, for real, not that I’m not happy that I’m graduating…I just expected a different emotion than the one I have and part of the problem is that I don’t know what the emotion I expected to be different was…but I know that this isn’t it) and then I head to Israel, making Aliyah and returning to the holy land.

Currently the plan is to spend the first six or so months on a Kibbutz doing ulpan (or staying for however long the work commitment is, a few months more, a few months less) and getting acquainted with the country, the culture, and the lifestyle; I’m actually hoping to find a vegetarian type kibbutz for health reasons. Then I’m going into the IDF to do whatever commitment is required of me there. After that, the next November that rolls around, I want to enter into the Intensive Arabic Program at Givat Haviva (unless I find a better one along the way, which is always a possibility and one that I’m keeping my eyes and ears open for) and I’ve begun saving so that I can do so; all this should take up the first two, two and a half years.

Following that, I want to go to Tel Aviv University (providing that I don’t find another university in Israel that I like more or that is better suited to my interests and talents) for my Masters Degree.

The Spartan Lifestyle

I want to do my Doctoral degree at NYU. Am I the best and the brightest up and coming linguist there ever was? Certainly not, possibly if not probably, incredibly far from it. But I do think that I’m a compelling applicant. I also think that after five or so years of real world experience I would be able to bring something special, if not unique, to their academic program. And if I don’t get in there for my Ph.D., there’s numerous schools in NYC for me to choose from, but that one is the goal (at the moment and of course with the proviso that this is all subject to change).

I’ve become incredibly minimalist over the past year, I get rid of things daily, I donate, and I throw out. I chuck and I recycle and I dump and I sell. By the time that I move out in 9 months, I’ll have one box of files containing data from my long term research projects, two boxes of books that will have a place on my parent’s bookshelves and my messenger bag with what little clothes and possessions I have left. I won’t need a moving van to move out, like I did to move in because in nine months, I’ll own next to nothing – all but two pieces of furniture will be sold and those two will have a home at my parents’ house. My jalopy of a hookah will be donated to a good cause because I can just pick up another one when I get to Israel…preferably one that doesn’t require duct tape to function (I love my hookah, really I do…but damn…it’s sort of like that car that you see on the street, and go ‘how much did the dealer have to pay the owner so he’d drive it off the lot…’ I’m actually sort of embarrassed to admit I paid anything for it…but it’s my deformed hookah and I love it…even if it did take the short bus to the shook).

I’m setting myself up to live only with what I can carry on my back. Is this necessary to do what I want? Well, no, very few things in life are actually necessary and I’m sure that I could travel with a few suitcases if I wanted to; but is this the life style in which I want to live my life? Absolutely. If you have very, very few possessions you’re free. Free to travel, free to live life without worry, free from bills of apartments and houses and mortgages and car payments…no strings attached…the nomadic lifestyle is incredibly appealing to me and my daily actions are leading me into that direction, which brings a great amount of comfort to me because it means that’s one less thing I have to do: figure out where I’ll be storing all of my (soon to be non-existant) shit.

I want it to come to the point, with proper saving and financial planning (thank you AmeriPrise), that I can fly back and forth between Israel and NYC at my pleasure and on a whim if I feel like it. If I’m not spending money on frivolous things and not worrying about upgrading my television, or finding a big apartment and If I’m only living in temporary housing, any money other than what I spend on food, clubbing, internet and my education can be saved for travel. I’m going to have my cake and eat it too: be a dual citizen, with equal time spent in both countries, still being able to watch my younger brother grow up into the man that he’s going to become. My family is incredibly important to me, and I won’t sacrifice them for my dreams but I also won’t sacrifice my dreams for my family; so rather than have this turn into a Catch 22 Conundrum I’ve chosen that path which will allow me to satisfy both sides of the equation…or, at the very least, balance them.

People ask me what my end game is. After I’m done with all my education (my formal education that is, learning is a life long process) I want to be a medical translator and interpreter for high risk areas working with Doctors Without Borders and the United Nations as support staff during times of conflict; providing the necessary support to both doctors and patients to see to it that those people who are injured get the treatment that they need and that those people who need psychiatric care, can communicate with a licensed mental health professional. I want to be the conduit that allows this to happen. During times of peace, I want to do translation work and I want to focus my Ph.D. research in Translatology and how poly-gendered ideas and theory can be expressed in bi-gendered languages.

Is this a long path, arduous, requiring years of studying, commitment, time, money, expenses? Absolutely. This is in no way an occupation of instant gratification and I’m well aware of the commitment that it will take…and I’m excited, that I’ll be able to get started on it soon.

I do have more to write about, but I also have to study…I have a quiz today, and it appears that sleep and I are currently not on speaking terms, which means I need to keep studying.

Peace all.

– Matan