My Summer Plans?

This being the first post in a while, I figured I'd try to bring y'all up to speed with the main enigma that I'm facing right now: what am I going to do with my summer?

Many of you probably remember my excitement in January of being accepted into an internship with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service for the entire summer. Even cooler than the acceptance was the fact that they would be sponsoring me - paying for my room and board, my textbooks and other school stuff, my transportation to the internship site from my housing, my transportation to Washington, DC, and a weekly stipend for miscellaneous stuff. You bet I was excited!! That internship was my entire plan for the summer, nicely packaged and conveniently affordable.

Unfortunately, the internship really will not do very much to enhance my opportunities with law. I would be working within the Training and Development Department of USCIS, hardly a position meant to enhance law school-ish opportunities. After a long talk with my dad (aka Wise Man) I decided that I should seek out other options for the summer that would lead me closer to law school or music.

Yes, music. I have realized that my odd ability to sing very high (like a woman) can actually earn me some major bucks down the road if I choose to capitalize on it. Countertenors are paid very highly to perform in early operas. Who knew? So I've been looking for programs this summer that can emphasize either of those two career paths.

And this is what I have so far.


I've been "accepted" into the Crittenden Opera Studio for this summer, a 2-week long workshop for opera performance held in Washington, DC. One of the voice faculty at BYU swears by this program, and I figured if I ever was serious about countertenor I would probably need to know a bit about opera performance. Accepted is a bit of a stretch...the same voice professor managed to get an acceptance email from Mr. Crittenden so that I could apply for a grant to help pay for the workshop, even though applications aren't even accepted until May (hehe). The workshop will take place during the middle of July.

I've also applied for an undergraduate law program at Florida State University, called the Summer for Undergraduates Program. This is a 4-week long program that teaches about the American legal system, teaches writing courses, explores careers in law, etc. Only 60 students are accepted each summer, and I have applied with great faith and hope (charity and love can enter the picture when I get accepted). This is the kind of program that, if you get accepted, pays for everything except your travel to and from Tallahassee, FL! You can imagine how much I want to go and enjoy FSU for 4 weeks for free!!!



I also have the goal of staying here at BYU during my "not-traveling-times" and working at the Library. My supervisor at the library right now wants me to be trained in an archival database project along with a few other employees, and I certainly want to take advantage of that. BUT - I cannot make a commitment for this summer with the library until I know what else I'll be doing and when.

And then, on top of all of these things, I still have not written my internship sponsor (USCIS) to tell them that I will have to withdraw my internship. I'm not really looking forward to it to be quite honest. I hate having to back out of any kind of commitment that I've made, especially in this type of situation where I was chosen after an interview process. However, the truth of the whole matter is that USCIS will not help me that much in either of my career aspirations.

So the question is: can I do everything I want this summer and not be overwhelmed, emotionally or financially? First I will need to know whether I'm accepted into the law program, if I get the grant to help pay for Crittenden, and when I'll be here to work at the library. And those three things are out of my hands right now.

I hate having to wait on people. ;-)