France or Québec?

Most (if not all) of you reading this will know that a big decision has fallen onto my lap over the past month.  It started earlier this month, around April 10th or so, that I learned I had been accepted into the program TAPIF (Teaching Assistant Program in France), which is program (wow, I say 'program' a lot) for American university students to teach English in France (or a French territory) for seven months.  Along with several of my friends here at Truman, I was accepted.  They placed me in Lille (not necessarily the city itself, but somewhere around there), which is the extreme north of France, just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Belgian border.

After receiving a rejection from one of the grad schools I applied to, TAPIF became more and more the way to go.  I started saying I was 95% sure that I was going, even if one of the other two schools I applied to accepted me, because I could most likely defer my admission and go later.

Then it actually happened.  On April 28, nearly three months after I submitted my application, I received an offer of admission into Concordia University's Master of Arts program (specifically in Littératures francophones et résonances médiatiques).  Concordia was my top choice in schools ever since I visited it last November and has always been on my "list."  I simply couldn't believe it when I was accepted.  Everyone around me told me that they believed I would get into grad school, but I couldn't believe them.  Then I did.

But it wasn't that simple.  TAPIF was still an option.  So was Concordia.  I had the biggest decision of my life to make and no one could make it for me.  I talked to different people, some biased, some un-biased, to get their opinions, but in the end, it was I who had to make the call.  I weighed the different pros and cons for both places.  I thought about it seriously, intently, and with my head and not my heart.  I wanted to make the right decision for me.  That's the keyword here: for me.  Both are amazing, irreplaceable opportunities, both in which I would be lucky to participate.  Yet I can't do both.  At least not at once.  They both start and end around the same time, so, obviously, I can't do both at once.

So I made my decision.

And I am proud to announce that this Fall, I will be a first year graduate student at Concordia University.

I know there will be people who are surprised and who think I'm making the wrong decision.  But I know this is the right decision for me.  I've been told that there are places out there other than Québec, and this is true; but there are also places other than France.  And I'd like to visit them all, but Québec is where I truly want to be.  I have waited six years for this.  Plus, it IS possible that I can do TAPIF later on.

Let me just say, I didn't know it was possible to be this happy.  I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.  Thanks so much to everyone for their support, advice, and kindness.