The funny thing about the holidays is that you have to be with your family, which inevitably causes the dreaded questions to come up. You know the ones - in high school it was "So, which colleges are you looking at?" then, in freshman and sophomore years of college, it was "So, what are you going to major in?", and, once you become a junior, people start to ask the worst question of all  - "So, what are you going to do with your life?"

It's really easy to just nod along and either deal with the judgement of not having an answer or make up something false that people will vaguely nod at and say "That's great! Good for you!", but the harder thing is to say what you're really thinking. For a while (from freshman year of college through about two months ago), my answer to the last question was "something in the restaurant industry" - an atypical answer that usually inspired people to give me a puzzled look silently asking why I'm wasting my potential, which would cause me to delve into one of my spiels about how many awesome things are going on with food right now and how there is so much talent in that industry, at which point people would give me a sympathetic nod, like I'd failed my LSATs or something and had to resort to working in a restaurant, and leave for more wine.

Since I've decided to join TFA, the reactions have been really varied. A lot of people feel like my response to their question invites them to give me their opinions on the public education system, the teachers' unions, and immigration - things that I'm not always up for hearing. Just because I don't want to lie when I tell you what my job will be for the next two years shouldn't permit you to rail at me for the decisions I've made or to rant about the current situation in our schools. I know it's an issue and that's why I'm trying to help do something about it.

My family, however, has been awesome. They've asked the kinds of questions that have allowed me to come to terms with next year, balancing the excitement with the nervousness. They've also showed a ton of respect for my choices, letting me talk about my decision making process instead of bombarding me with the reasons why they would never do it. It's inspired a series of great conversations about some deep topics, including the ones I named above - discussions that have made me even more excited about what's to come.