Grad School Woes

So i have finalized my list of graduate schools, and am starting that rather difficult and expensive process of applying. As it stands i am applying to NYU, BU, and Tufts for a Masters in Public Health with a concentration in Global/ International health. It took me a pretty long time to decide that i was going to apply for the next fall semester, but i feel like i am more prepared and have the actual motivation to apply now than i would have in the next year or so.

It does seem like this is coming on a little bit too fast. I have set myself a deadline of December 1st to have sent in all of my applications and supporting materials, obviously i will try for earlier if possible, but that is the plan right now. Perhaps it seems too soon, because i only have 6 weeks left until i am thrown into the unforgiving "real" world. Its not that i don't feel prepared or sure of what i want to do, it is just that Suffolk has always given me an avenue to explore deeper into those fields and prepare for them, and i have reached the end.

I am still actively looking for a job, and the Clinton Foundation has agreed to pay me on a temporary basis, so that is awesome. Hopefully if i do well enough in my position at the foundation i will be asked to stay on as a full time employ, and then have a reasonable excuse to put off grad school. I know this may all sound like i am dreading the idea of pursuing a masters degree, and that is not it at all. I think that is the realization that after getting my masters i am not sure where i would go. I honestly can't see myself getting a doctorate or going any further, but than that begs the question of what do after a masters? do you just stop?

I have been in some sort of formalized education, as have most of you reading this for almost 18 years, i am not sure i know how to not be in school....

So that is where all that stands at the moment, and i am trying not to let that over-power the rest of my life. School as it is, is going okay, some papers due next week and an exam on something, i think. Work is going well, the three jobs helps the semester fly by, and somehow i am managing to keep some semblance of a collegiate social life, though that too is slowly dwindling

I guess all in all this is what they call growing up, and as i begin to take it all in and digest it, i find more and more merit in the immortal words of peter pan and the lost boys