Oh Shit

Not doing anything over winter break has come back to bite me.

For my study abroad, there are two scholarships and one more program that I haven't finished the application for. One is due in about ten days, and I really haven't even started yet. That's for the IUC, Princeton's inter-university center for Japanese studies, the intensive program in Yokohama.

Another is for the Boren scholarship, which at the moment I'm working on the application for. Since the program is sponsored by the government, you have to argue how and why your program fits in with United States national security. Awards of the scholarship receieve up to $20,000 to help with the costs. However, there's a catch. Within three years of your graduation date, you have to work for the Feds for a year. That's a glaring detail I failed to notice only until today. My interests really aren't in national security, they're in teaching, but within my essays I have to find a way to spin it so it sounds like there's a relationsip. So much bullshit.

After these if i have to write one more application essay I'm going to go bat-shit crazy. This is too much. After around mid-January, everything (except for one potential scholarship) will have been taken care of, and all I have to do it wait.

Somehow I wish I didn't have to try for all of these scholarships I'm sure I'm not going to receive, but the program's so expensive, there's no choice.

For the Boren scholarship, submitting the online application tomorrow, or Tuesday at the latest will be my best option; if I don't I'm in serious trouble for IUC.