The final countdown: 2 peas in a pod

 or, you know, 2 days in a countdown
 
Things I've learned during my Fulbright year:
#10 - a lot about the English language
#9 - there is such a thing as too much free time
#8 - riding your bike in the snow can be dangerous
#7 - missing your last train isn't always a bad thing
#6 - how to not be the student
#5 - German
#4 - I am a Georgia girl 
#3 - you're allowed to visit home on a year abroad
#2 - The future comes no matter how hard you try to avoid it

This one is a pretty good life lesson that I've really escaped facing for a long time... say about 23 years. Really, there were only three times in my past that I've actually  had to make serious decisions that would affect my future:
 
1998: picking an instrument for 6th grade band (hey, that was serious business for an 11 year old)
2005: picking a college/course of study
2009: trying to figure out what to do after graduation
 
Other than those three times it really has been smooth sailing (I'll just ride out this college thing as long as I can... add another major? ok! Oh wait, you mean I have to do something after I graduate. Ehh, I'll worry about that when I graduate) Well, if it wasn't made clear to me in the Fulbright application, which is a grueling year-long process that is started 15 months before you even board the plan to Germany, the future involves a little pre-planning. But if you know me at all I like to wait till the last possible second to do anything. And I'm damn good at, if I say so myself (you're talking to the girl who made a 100 on my final upper-level music history paper that I started at 8pm the night before it was due). 
 
After all the stress and waiting and applying and waiting and planning that went into the Fulbright application, when I arrived in Germany in September I was just ready to enjoy my Fulbright year. No more applications. No more stress. Just enjoying life abroad. 
 
That was until about mid March when I realized that my options were pretty much live in a box in Germany avoiding deportation or live in a box in Georgia avoiding the wrath of my mother for not having a job. And really both were equally as frightening. There I was in the final months of my stress-free Fulbright year and I realized I had not organized a single thing for after the grant ended. 
 
What ensued was a whirlwind of stress and self-loathing and about 500 different fall back plans that went as low as moving back home and getting some part-time job in Watkinsville that I wouldn't even need a car to get to and just save money for a year while I got my life back on track (hi, my name is Emily and I'm a recovering procrastinating Fulbright scholar....). 
 
Long story short, I got very lucky and ended up with another year as a teaching assistant which means I get to stay in Germany longer and I get another year of job security. A sort of get out of jail free card for the unplanned future. 
 
But I have learned one very important lesson in it all: no matter how much you just want to live in the moment and enjoy the present, the future is always creeping up and eventually you're going to have to face it, ready or not.
 
Which is why I'll be spending my year next year soaking up the excitement of another year in Germany, but also applying for grad school and looking into career options and generally just trying to not end up in a box (in Germany or in Georgia).