planning the start of the rest of my life

since the beginning of this year, i've been making plans for the years to come and they change all the time and i have yet to come up with anything definite. first, it was paris by june... until i found out i wasn't graduating until august at the earliest. so, since then it's been loosely the following:
1. 09/2007 - summer2008, boston
2. summer2008 - indefinite point in time, paris/europe/traveling all over
3. by 25, married.

this, however, is not the kind of plan i can present to my parents, because they are SOOOO ridiculously concerned about me finishing school. not in the sense where they want me to finish OMGASAP, but they want me to just concentrate on finishing and finishing in good standing, especially now that "there's no more pressure to finish right away, and, emi, you can take all the time you need..." whatever. i have no desire to stay in school any longer than i need to and the earliest i can leave is august so that's when i want to go. they get that and because my parents are insanely supportive and awesome, they're totally fine with it. well, rather, they're fine with it as long as i have a good solid plan for finishing by august where i don't feel stressed and my GPA doesn't suffer because i'm "rushing to finish." which takes me to my current and most pressing predicament.

i have no idea what to do this summer. there are a multitude of options... originally, i was like, okay, i only need a certain number of credits to graduate which happens to be the same number of credits to get a minor in something, the logical something for me being french since i've already taken two 300-level classes and i'm half-french, right? okay, so... i figure, 'it's perfect. i'll do that.' then my mind starts working some more and i think, 'well there's a study abroad program in the summer... this is even more perfect! i can go to france in the summer like i planned in the very beginning AND finish school at the end of the summer like i want and everything will be great!' so, i get this magnificent plan thought out to study abroad for three months in the summer and take and complete fifteen credits of french and thus graduate in august with two degrees and my parents are aaaallllll for it. BUUUTTT, with more and more research, i learn that the possibility of this is so insanely slim and for such an insane amount of reasons: my current GPA, the fact that my major is not french, my year in school/how close i would be to graduating, the number of courses and the number of credit hours offered in the study abroad program, the time in which the program is being offered, what i'm going to do with my cats and my furniture and ohmyfuckinggod, the more i realized what i would have to work against for this to happen the way i imagined it the more and more i FUHREAKED OUT. i kept positive though, just keeping in mind that it could maybepossiblymaybe work out. weeeeelllll, early this afternoon, i met with the director for the study abroad program and this is basically what she told me :
1. i won't have any problem going there as long as i get my application in asap.
2. i can only take a max of 6 credits and only in the month allowed.
3. there is no way, even if i don't go abroad, that i can get a minor in french by august.


so, that's that... all of my potential plans came CRASHING down. but, now, after the dust has settled, instead of there being one really obvious, definite plan left, there are even more potential options than before. without this pseudo-constraint i created for myself of getting a minor in french by august and without having the real constraint of major requirements, i have essentially three months of pure academic freedom. i can go abroad to peru, brazil, southern africa, morocco, france, tibet, or costa rica -- all for approximately 4 weeks and still have the rest of the summer to get the rest of the credits i need to graduate. and the classes i can take can be things i actually want to know about/learn like, buddhism, environmental sciences, drawing, theater, and philosophy. i can basically create the best academic summer session ever and live it out as my last semester of my college career. what an amazing way to finish!

now the only things i have to do is decide what i want to study and where i want to go, run it past my dad, wait for the appropriate approvals, and sit back and enjoy myself all the way until boston...