Not sure what I want to do
 

Alright most of ya'll know I'm a college kid, with no direction. I don't have the slightest clue what I want to or should major in. Anything that starts to get interesting also turns impractical fairly fast, or I just don't have the necessary skills (it seems) to follow through. So I bumble along and take classes. Well its about time I see the counselor at school, find out what exact classes I need to complete an associates. I think I'll get a science associates, that's about as specific as I can get.
I just can't find any focus, most things I like just seem too implausible.
So I think I digress some. Lately I've been wondering about finding a mission trip to go on. Here are my big hang ups though, I don't want it to be religiously associated, no converting the natives! I have never traveled out of the country, or even on a plane. I don't speak a foreign language, just a tiny bit of spanish.
I do want to go outta the country because I should. Everyone should attempt to travel I think, and it would be a good experience, beyond you know helping people. If I do do this it wouldn't be until Summer 2010 at the earliest. Any ideas though?

:D
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What do you find implausible about the things you like? You can make a living out of almost anything. Most things don't take anything more than average intelligence and drive.

People who hang onto their limitations get to keep them.

MTP, I immediately thought of Voluntary Service Overseas but it seems there is no US branch ... must be something similar. I recommend travel!

Travel is great, as long as you don't harbor any illusions about it. It'sfun, educational and may broaden your mind but you're still the same person when you get off the plane as you were when you got on it.

Making the investment and commitment to see a bigger piece of the world won't necessarily give you direction. However, it is a decent use of your time until you settle into a direction.

Peace Corps, mtp? No religious overtones. I know many former volunteers; they're all stellar people.

Perry, I disagree. One volunteer I know got off the plane in Africa as a brash 19-year-old, returned to the States twenty three years later, a well and truly different person.

It can be a very life-altering experience.

I've always regreted not doing Peace Corps or something like it. I say it's a good thing MTP.

If I were 18 and just done with HS I would consider Peace Corps. Usually its a 2yr commitment, atleast to start out, I only want to be gone a few months. I might not be done with my associates by then. After I reasses my curricular path, I'll know better when it will be complete. Who knows, mebbe by 2010, if I'm done with the associates, I'll feel like I could leave for 2years. Just incase though I'm tryin to find shorter-commitment time alternatives.

The time will pass anyway...

I would say it was the time and commitment to do something significant more than the going somewhere that changed him. Of course the environment and the person at his core determined who he became. It's the twenty three years that changed him. Not the fact that he went somewhere.

No, the fact that he was exposed to a very different set of people and circumstances than he grew up with. It challenged him in a very real way. He did accept the challenge in the first place, but it was the work, the people and the place that changed him. (According to him.)

The Marine Corps wants you.

There are many options for you to teach English overseas. Anyone with a college degree (and many without one) can get work in most countries. You don't need a teaching or English degree.
It is a great way to travel and see the world and either make some money or at least pay your expenses as you go.
You can earn and save quite a bit in Korea or Japan, earn a living in most other Asian nations. South America, Africa and the Middle East have lots of earning-a-living opportunities too, although Europe is harder for anyone without a British passport.

I cannot find the link but there are schools in Thailand where you come for 4 or 8 weeks and they teach you how to be a teacher and get you teaching.

I know someone who is teaching English in Japan. She studied history at University, and only spoke English and German, but now she's over there working in a school. Costs a little for the training, of course, but it does seem a good career. Or did, at least, I think finances may be changing that right now...either way, its something worth looking into.

The problem with many travelling and doing aid type jobs is that they cost a lot. The Peace Corps sound pretty good, but with many of the other charities, you pay to go, and if you have no or little money, that can be very hard. I did one for World Challenge which cost a few thousand to go on, when everything was totalled up. And that wasn't even for a year.