Now that I am done waiting for decisions to come down from graduate admissions committees, I have a very difficult decision ahead of me. Brace yourself, this analogy is cheesy crummy. Imagine somebody putting before you four cupcakes. Four gorgeous, tasty-looking cupcakes. You can only choose one to eat for the next five years, and your choice will profoundly affect your ability to make and buy cupcakes for the rest of your life. To complicate matters, all four are very different.
One of them is a good ol' trusty red velvet. You are used to red velvet cupcakes, you do well when you eat these cupcakes. You already know that red velvet would make you happy, because you are satisfied with it right now. Your relationship with several of the bakers is very productive, and they are all supportive. There are no surprises and nothing really bad about red velvet, except that if you choose it, you will have only had red velvet cupcakes for most of your life. The best baker there is pushing you to move out of your comfort zone.
Then, there's an Irish chocolate cupcake. It's supposedly a lot like red velvet, but green. It's unfamiliar, and Ireland is really cold. A friend really enjoys these cupcakes, but it will be a while before you even get to taste them. You have, however, been able to read a lot about these cupcakes, and the bakers look fantastic on paper. Getting to know the bakers and other people who might choose the Irish chocolate cupcake are probably the two most important things you need to learn before you pass your final judgment on it.
Another one is dark chocolate. Many people say that this is the best cupcake of them all. It's been around forever, and people seem to generally think you're awesome for even getting dark chocolate as an option. No one, including yourself, thought that it would even be an option (though the same could be said for Irish chocolate). Being the best comes with some disadvantages. It makes it more difficult to see any flaws. You want to make sure that the bakers will look out for you, and that the other people who choose dark chocolate aren't so competitive that you are unable to work.
Finally, there's vanilla milk chocolate. It's close to home. Unlike the others, which all have a chocolate base, it's mostly vanilla. The frosting, however, is still chocolate. You want some vanilla, but you're unsure if you want chocolate to play second fiddle to vanilla. It wouldn't be easy, but it could be valuable. The problem is that there's some vanilla in every cupcake, and if you needed more vanilla to make sure that your future is a little more solid, you could always add some. Here, it could be a struggle to be chocolate in a mostly vanilla world. Still, you know the bakers and other people who chose it, and they all seem great. Did I mention that it's close to home?
Excuse the cheese. I don't know if my brain could come up with any other way to talk about this. In any case, it's going to be a difficult decision. I feel bad complaining about how hard this is going to be when I know that there are quite a few people who don't have any options at all. Had I only been accepted to one school, it might have felt like fate. That would have been easy. Instead, I am expected to make a choice. This is probably my first real big girl decision. It will determine where Mark and I live for at least the next five years of our lives. It could determine my job options in the future.
Well, it's back to thesis writing for me. Cupcake updates will be posted in late March. The final decision will be up no later than April 15th, for those of you who want to know.
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