What do I do now?

There was a day last summer that goes down in infamy in my mind. I was road tripping - one of my all time favorite things to do - with a friend. We h been traveling for four days - from Dallas to Denver, then to Salt Lake and then to Lake Tahoe for a wedding. We left Tahoe and drove through some incredible scenery - lakes blue as the sky and mountains higher than you can imagine! Then I had the incredible priviledge of going to Yosemite - and even thought it was only for a few hours, I have firmly decided that it is my favorite place on earth! Then, Heidi and I forced ourselves back into the car and headed for Las Vegas. It was late and we had a long way to go - so we decided to cut through Death Valley. It was midnight when we entered the valley - and I was driving with Heidi asleep beside me. It had been an incredible day - and I relieved the images and smells of the beautiful waterfalls and humongus trees as I drove. I began to see lights ahead of me - way up in the sky. They disappeared and then reappeared again - I then realized that they were head lights and that I had a huge mountain to climb. Now remember, I am in death Valley - there are no lights and no one is around (except that one car) I began to travel up the mountain. There were serious hair pin turns - and my lights would go ahead of me and span across the cliff, my heart was racing! The moon rose over the mountain and I began to see what was to my left - Nothing but a sheer drop! I began to think that I had made a really bad decision taking this "short cut" - then I saw a sign telling me to turn off my air conditioning because the elevation was increasing! I began to think that we should just stop and spend the night in the next pull off and wait until morning to go to Vegas - but we had paid for a hotel room in Vegas and I didn't want to waste the money that I knew we wouldn't get back. So, I pressed on. At one point I pulled over to consult a map and realized that all it said was that I was in the middle of no where! The stars were incredible, the trip unforgettable and that drive was unbelievable. I was stressed out - should I keep going, turn around, go another route? Should I take a break and let Heidi drive - or let her sleep so she could take over later on? What if I took a wrong turn and we end up in the wrong place? How do I know I am going right? As I think about my decision for next year I feel all of these things again. Do I stay here another year and make money - or do I return to Dallas and do what my heart is screaming to do - but be broke? Do I take another year overseas so that I am "better prepared" in the job experience market - or do I just go home and get busy on my life dream? If I stay I will have enough money to finish and then get my PhD - but if I leave now I will be scraping ends together to finish - but I will be doing what I want to do! So - I have all those feelings - so I stop or go on? Is the road before me bad enough that I need to slow down and attack it slowly - or can I just run into it and trust that all will work out - And can I change my attitude about his place enough to enjoy the next year here - or will I resent my decision and count the days until I return to Dallas? And how will I come up with the answer?