A New Direction: Rae Goes Away

My name is Raelynn and it has been over 1 year since I've last blogged.

A YEAR! Can you believe it?! Last I was here, I was a Sophomore English major on track to study abroad in Ireland, go into the Peace Corps, and head off to grad school for Linguistics. My how a year changes things. Here are some major points:

• I'm now a Sociology Major, with a focus on Social Work and a minor in Nonprofit Administration.
• While I still hope to go abroad, I'm looking more into internships in global aid.
• Peace Corps is not out of the question, but it seems a little impractical by the time I'll finally finish my undergrad. I have 6 semesters left...
• I hope to go to Grad School for Counseling. I still love linguistics and study it independently, my heart really lies in helping others however I can. I'd love to work the "messy" cases most people don't want to know exist. I want to help the rape victims, the violence victims, those with mental illnesses, and, should I have the opportunity, genocide survivors, political refugees, and the like.
• I'm still writing. I'm beginning my second book next month and another in November. I've not yet approached any agents though, I want to flesh out the entire world to present, not just one novel.
• I have a new boyfriend. See here: Hiatus: Wii Unboxing! "(aka This is Keith)
• AND CHECK IT! NEW BLOG NAME!! LIFEDUCKS = RAE GOES AWAY! (I call that fair warning I will most likely disappear again.)

I guess those are the things that were before and now are changing, but a lot of entirely new things are happening too! Here, have another bulleted list:

• I'M MOVING OUT! As soon as Keith can find a job and we save the money we'll be getting our own place! I'm crazy excited about that, so be prepared for weird posts about moving and decor.
• I'm interning with a local nonprofit called PEP! (The Pet Education Project!).
• Keith and I are opening a nonprofit... in the future. That sounds a little weird and sketchy but it's happening and I will undoubtably say something about it eventually.

So, if you were wondering, life's good. I'm really wanting to get back into blogging and vlogging and everything I really enjoyed doing online. With school and work and interning and life it'll be hard, but I really do love it so hopefully some of you lovely readers will stick around?

That being said, since my life has changed so much my blogging will, inevitably, as well. If you didn't notice, last year, in general, my blogging was less about books I'd read and more just about books in general. I simply don't have the time to read like I used to. And what I do read I don't think anyone will be interested in. So, I think the biggest change to my blogging content will be the lessening of book talk. I still love to read and to buy books for those far off times when I will have time to read, but books take up far less of my life than they once did. Instead, I'll be posting more about my life and things I think about and do. Expect travel pieces, expect rants, expect introspection, expect DIYs and [failed] DIYs, expect recipes, expect anything. 

Basically, what I'm trying to say is I'm really going to try to dedicate myself to blogging again and that this isn't "Lifeducks" as you knew it (or didn't know it). Rae Goes Away is a just another lifestyle blog about random things in the life of a random girl somewhere in the world doing random things like someone cares. I hope you'll stick around.

A Little Life Planning

At the end of last week, I decided to take a stroll down memory lane and glance through my archives here at Life Ducks. What I found was a lost of book reviews and one little post called The Question. Way back before the name Life Ducks had found me, particularly in May of 2011, I was nervous and excited to graduate high school. When I wrote this post I had just finished watching Eat. Pray. Love., a lovely movie (one of my favorites) about a woman who explores the world for a year. In the terror and confusion that was leaving the only world I'd ever known, pre-college school days, I started to think about what I wanted from life versus what I was actually working to achieve. Surprise, surprise, they didn't match up! I tell you all this as a way of explaining this post. Today I thought I'd share a little with you all about what I want and plan to do with my life, in a much less poetic way than the original post.

photocredit/photocredit
I still think this photo sums up my life dreams.

So what do I want to do? I'm currently in an undergraduate program working towards my English major with a focus on Creative Writing. What does that have to do with anything? Well, as you know I'm working on a novel at this very moment. Yes, I hope to be an accomplished author, but there's so much more to it than that.

Another thing I want for my life is to travel, a lot. That began with my first major trip the summer of 2010 when I went to Europe for the first time. This is going to continue with a study abroad program. I'm so excited that I can't even handle it. I'm not sure where I'm going yet, but I will be studying abroad. My first choice is Ireland, my second is Hong Kong. The program with which I'd go to Ireland is very prestigious  so, while I think I'll be accepted, I really need my back up plan. Either place I go, I hope to study culture and languages (especially Irish Gaelic).

After my undergraduate degree is earned, I plan to enlist in the Peace Corps. With the Peace Corps I will get formal training in a language and placed somewhere that I can truly help and make a difference in peoples' lives. My dream would be to be placed somewhere in the south Pacific or near the Indian Subcontinent. The languages there fascinate me and I hope to spend my life there.

But what can I do in the south pacific? Well, after my 27 month in the Peace Corps, I plan to attend graduate school in either London or Hawai'i. Hawai'i is actually my first choice. There I hope to study Linguistics, focusing specifically on documentation and conservation of endangered languages. And that's what I want to do as my career, study, document, and conserve endangered and dying languages around the globe, specifically in the South Pacific. 

To sum it up, my life plan is as follows:

1. Study abroad
2. Publish a novel
3. Finish my BA in English
4. Peace Corps
5. Graduate School
6. Research and conserve languages for the rest of ever.

Do you know what you want to do with your life? What are your wildest dreams?