Embracing the Unknown

The unknown can be scary. Especially when you are an adult, trying to figure out next steps, or your future is relying on it.

Right now, the unknown is my reality.

For the past few years, my husband has been working full time and taking high-level mathematics and economic courses. He’s been spending time learning, growing, and ultimately, pursuing his dream of getting a PhD in economics. He, too, wants to join the world of education, albeit higher education.

I’m so incredibly proud of him. But that’s an entirely different post.

All this work has been for one thing: To have an amazing application to submit to several highly competitive doctoral programs. And finally, at the end of 2019, he was ready.

In December, he submitted all his applications. He applied to schools all over the country, only two of which are in our home state of Illinois. After years of preparation, months of applying, and hours spent agonizing over word choice, personal statements, and research abilities, he did it.

And now, we wait.

We are both in eager anticipation to find out where he gets in. And also to find out where we will live. Where I will work.

These places could be as familiar as an hour away, within driving distance of our apartment. Or they could be thousands of miles across the country, in places neither of us have ever even visited.

There are licenses to transfer, teaching jobs to seek, friends to leave, homes to buy.

I’m terrified. But I’m also thrilled.

This new adventure has felt so abstract, so far on the horizon, for such a long time. And now, we are on the precipice of an exhilarating new future. One that is real. That is happening. Right now.

And while the unknown is frightening, it’s also full of possibility. For us to make new friends, work with new colleagues, make new connections, explore a new place, and build a new home.

Here’s to the unknown and to the hopeful excitement that it brings.