So, what are you doing with your degree?

Conversations with friends' parents, acquaintances, colleagues and the random people I interview people for stories always make their way towards the obvious question everyone wants to know the answer to. What am I going to do with my degree?

Well, I will tell you exactly what I'm going to do with my degree in broadcast journalism and Spanish from the University of Minnesota: I'm going to teach English in Málaga, Spain for the next school year. Yup.

Armed with my cap and gown this past May I knew exactly where I was going to be going this September, and it wasn't to a newsroom (and I LOVE newsrooms). However, I couldn't be more happy with my decision. Picking up life and moving across the world to teach, something that I have no professional training in, is an idea that I have been in love with. If I wouldn't have attempted it, I know it would have been something I wished I had went for; a dream I never followed.

The idea all started when I lived in Barcelona, Spain as a student in spring of 2009. I vividly remember my cab pulling away from Eva, my 46 year-old Señora and Spanish speaking woman I lived with, after we had just lugged my suitcases down God knows how many flights of Barcelona stairs. The sun was rising over the Mediterranean as I left this amazing woman who had taken me in as her own for the last 5 months, and who had given me love and kindness past what she was paid and expected to. Being the horrible person that I am with goodbyes, I of course had tears running down my cheeks as the Spanish cab driver pulled away. The cab driver tried to give me my space and still make me smile in what I knew would be one of my last authentic Spanish conversations in a long time. But I turned and looked out the back window at Eva, and saw the Mediterranean to my left out of the cab window, and I knew that I wasn't done with Spain. I knew I would come back to live. I had no idea what I would be doing, but I knew I would be coming back, and the gut-wrenching feeling I may never come back to this culture I had fallen in love with went away.

So here I am, 5 days away from when I leave for my next adventure with España. I may not be headed to a newsroom where I hoped I might be at this point, but I'm following another dream I've had now for 2 years, and I couldn't feel more emocionada about it!

I can't forget to mention that one of my most amazing friends since fourth grade, Liz Fischbach, will be joining me in this journey we are sure to never forget.

Feel free to follow my adventure arriving with a one-way ticket, only 2 suitcases and no apartment as I attempt to navigate Andalucian culture, teach my own language I struggle with on a daily basis and enjoy each and every moment, sunrise and glass of wine for what they bring. I'll be posting photos and written content regularly, and if this poor post graduate can save up for some video equipment, I might just throw that in too! Besitos.