i have actually made a spreadsheet with two columns: columbia and stanford.

on the columbia side: cheaper/shorter flights home.  i know a couple people in the city.  but it's a huge city - boo.  (the spreadsheet literally has a line that says "boo city.")  new york city has cool cultural stuff.

on the stanford side: longer/more expensive flights home.  hiking!  weather!  (you will not be surprised to know that the spreadsheet has exclamation points in it.)  i know no one there; this is scary.  "yay not as big city."  california is more my style.

i am the luckiest, luckiest girl ever, in that i got into the educational leadership master's degree program i applied to at columbia and the one i applied to at stanford.

i am in the middle of a first world problem if ever there was one.  which one do i pick?

(the big unknown right now: cost.  will i get any scholarship money from either place?)

a woman i work with said to me today, "you don't have to make the responsible choice.  i'm 48 and have two kids.  i have to be responsible.  you get to do whatever you want - and you should."

(damn it feels good to be a gangsta twenty-nine year old.)

(cultural reference point for old people here.  everyone else should just go watch office space again.)

(okay, i got off topic.  sorry.  back to regularly scheduled programming.)

i have lived in atlanta for seven years and it is so familiar to me - so comfortable.  i wake up in the morning knowing what my day will be like.  i have INCREDIBLE friends.  they will be, hands down, the hardest part of leaving this city.  but i'm tired of the certain, the normal.  there are aspects of my job that i don't love, and i am eager to explore a new place and meet new people.  i've waited to apply for graduate school until now because it never felt like it was time.  it is time now.  i'm scared about the unknown, but i want it nonetheless.

so, i'm pretty sure i'm going.  i have been waiting to get excited about grad school because i didn't want to be disappointed if i didn't get in to one or both of these programs.  i have been cautiously optimistic, and now i'm over the moon.  there was jumping up and down.  this should not surprise you, either.  i kind of can't believe they want me.  hoo-ray.

so...i'm going.  but to which one - that is the question.

i. need. help.

comments/emails/phone calls are encouraged.  this i know about myself: in order to make decisions i desperately need to talk it out.

thankyouverymuch.

love,
miss claire