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In the spring of 2008, I graduated with a combined honours degree in cultural studies & critical thinking, and anthropology.  While completing my undergrad, I had contemplated applying to graduate school. Although anthropology is a graduate program in Canada, cultural studies (which was my preferred area of interest) is not – it’s usually part of an English department.  So I decided to give myself an advantage in the application process and pursue a bachelor of arts (non-honours) in English.

Originally, I had only planned to stay at McMaster for a year since it would only take me eight months to get all the credits required to graduate with the degree in English.  I also took a bunch of indigenous studies classes as electives because I felt I could learn a lot from the program.   I got the necessary references, filled out my applications and played the waiting game.

It turns out that I didn’t get into any of the grad schools I applied to, but that didn’t mean my options were limited for the upcoming year.  Since I was doing very well in myindigenous studies classes, I decided I would go back to school again and finish with a combined honours degree in English and indigenous studies in April 2010 because:

• I can afford to complete this degree right now, so I do not need to wait until years down the road to go back to school
• finishing this program will help with my employability in the future – knowledge of indigenous issues can be applied to many different sectors
• it will expand my expertise in a way that may help admit me to post-graduate studies should I choose to go that route
• although there are times when I really hate school, for the most part I actually really like it (call me a nerd) – I have a genuine desire to learn and will likely be doing it in some form or another for the rest of my life.

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