What Am I Doing With My Life
Well, I should probably be working on my Intro to SAO test right now, but instead I think I will eat Starbursts and analyze my life as far as college and a career go.
In all honesty, I’m really not sure where my life is going. Brian and I had a chat last night, and it helped me figure some stuff out, but I still have no clue where the hell my life is going.
Before I get into the main part of this post, I would just like to say something… I’m not sure how it makes sense in this blog, but I still want to say it… I LOVE writing… My senior year of high school, I took a college level writing class. I FUCKING LOVED that class!! I didn’t even mind the fact that it required me to be at school by 7AM 3 days a week. I have a 2hr a week blogging job for the college which I LOVE. I write random things on an almost daily basis. My love for writing might lead one to think that a career in writing, such as being a journalist, would be an ideal career for me. I don’t think so though. I like free writing. I think having to write news or magazine articles would drive me crazy. I don’t write about anything long enough to write a book. My attempt at writing poetry was not a good one. Plus, I don’t think you can get an Associate’s degree in journalism, certainly not one that’s worth anything, and I’m really not up for the idea of 4 years of school right now.
I realize that in college you aren’t exactly meant to know what you want to do for the rest of your life, but I would really like to have some kind of idea.
The beginning of my senior year, my plan was to go to Sierra Nevada to major in Ski Business and Resort Management. For some reason, I gave up on that plan. The next plan I came up with was to go to Gogebic College for Ski Area Management. After visiting Gogebic, I decided that they did not have enough trees for my liking. At that point, I think I was still tossing around the idea of Sierra Nevada a bit because I remember reading materials from them while at Great Bear. Eventually, I decided that I didn’t like the idea of going to Sierra Nevada. After awhile, I decided on Colorado Mountain College for Ski Area Operations. For those of you who have been paying no attention to my life for the past 5 months, I’m currently attending CMC. I also briefly looked at the University of Maine at Farmington because they have a minor in Ski Industries, and within Ski Industries, I could have specialized in Professional Ski Coaching and Ski Teaching. However, U of M is a 4 year school and I couldn’t find any majors that I liked.
As some people know, I am not perfectly happy studying Ski Area Operations at CMC. Within the first month here, I had decided that I was not entirely happy. I have considered transferring to Steamboat next fall to study Ski and Snowboard Business, but that’s not really what I want to study either. I have also re-considered Sierra Nevada and Gogebic. However, Sierra Nevada has so many ridiculous course requirements that I don’t really feel like going there. The only reason that I have really reconsidered Gogebic is that they have a class on instructing, so at least in all of my misery, there would be 1 class that I would enjoy.
I think the plan that Brian and I (well… mostly Brian) came up with last night is probably the best idea I’ve come up with so far. Essentially, the plan consists of doing the 2 yrs here and just getting them done with.
Although many of the majors I have looked at involve business, I’m not super incredibly interested in the business side of things. I am however incredibly interested in instructing. I also love snowboard racing (at least when I’m in my “damn good racer” mode… when I’m in my stubborn “I hate racing… this is stupid… what the hell am I doing… all I’ve done lately is get hurt” mode, things aren’t so peachy).
Correction: Last night, I told Brian that my parents said I couldn’t make a career out of instructing, today on the phone with my mom I was corrected that I was told that no one ever said I couldn’t make a career out of instructing, I was just told that I needed a fall-back plan also.
Brian’s nice simple little plan then was that I become a licensed snowboard coach, complete my degree to make the parents happy, and get on with life (I think “get on with life” translates into “go out and instruct” but I’m not entirely sure). Later on in the conversation, he suggested the idea of being a snowboard coach at an academy, along with being a school teacher. He obviously has never seen my knowledge of math and science if he thinks there is any kind of chance of being successful teaching school.
In response to some of Brian’s questions last night, “what's your ultimate goal? dream job? where do you think you want to be in 5yrs? ten yrs? any ideas?”
I would love to devote a few years to snowboard racing, and just see where it gets me. Once I have exhausted that idea, I would love to coach/instruct for several years. In a way, I guess settling down with a “normal” job appeals to me, but I can’t actually see myself doing that.
As far as my ultimate goal… I want to be a CONSISTENTLY damn good racer. I know that somewhere inside of me, I have that potential. I believe that I’ve shown that side of me before. According to Jon, I’m not a bad rider-now, if he lied about that just to make me happy, I give you permission to go and punch him, but I don’t think he lied about it. However, as AJ pointed out, I have been known to have a complete lack of enthusiasm, which has been known to beyond snowboarding. Jon has also pointed out my ‘not always enthusiastic’ approach towards snowboarding. I am trying REALLY REALLY REALLY hard to be more positive about snowboarding and life in general, and it’s come to the point where you should probably bonk me over the head when I start being too negative, just don’t hit me too hard, lol.
My dream job would probably involve doing lots and lots of instructing… I’m not entirely sure I would want to coach a team though because I like a bit of variety… So perhaps just working at a resort as an instructor would be a better idea.
Where do I want to be in 5 years? Ideally, I would like to be racing. If racing doesn’t work out, I’d happily settle for instructing 5 years from now.
10 years from now I would definitely like to be instructing, because I think racing competitively then would be a bit of a stretch, plus I can definitely see myself getting burned out by then.
In all honesty, I’m really not sure where my life is going. Brian and I had a chat last night, and it helped me figure some stuff out, but I still have no clue where the hell my life is going.
Before I get into the main part of this post, I would just like to say something… I’m not sure how it makes sense in this blog, but I still want to say it… I LOVE writing… My senior year of high school, I took a college level writing class. I FUCKING LOVED that class!! I didn’t even mind the fact that it required me to be at school by 7AM 3 days a week. I have a 2hr a week blogging job for the college which I LOVE. I write random things on an almost daily basis. My love for writing might lead one to think that a career in writing, such as being a journalist, would be an ideal career for me. I don’t think so though. I like free writing. I think having to write news or magazine articles would drive me crazy. I don’t write about anything long enough to write a book. My attempt at writing poetry was not a good one. Plus, I don’t think you can get an Associate’s degree in journalism, certainly not one that’s worth anything, and I’m really not up for the idea of 4 years of school right now.
I realize that in college you aren’t exactly meant to know what you want to do for the rest of your life, but I would really like to have some kind of idea.
The beginning of my senior year, my plan was to go to Sierra Nevada to major in Ski Business and Resort Management. For some reason, I gave up on that plan. The next plan I came up with was to go to Gogebic College for Ski Area Management. After visiting Gogebic, I decided that they did not have enough trees for my liking. At that point, I think I was still tossing around the idea of Sierra Nevada a bit because I remember reading materials from them while at Great Bear. Eventually, I decided that I didn’t like the idea of going to Sierra Nevada. After awhile, I decided on Colorado Mountain College for Ski Area Operations. For those of you who have been paying no attention to my life for the past 5 months, I’m currently attending CMC. I also briefly looked at the University of Maine at Farmington because they have a minor in Ski Industries, and within Ski Industries, I could have specialized in Professional Ski Coaching and Ski Teaching. However, U of M is a 4 year school and I couldn’t find any majors that I liked.
As some people know, I am not perfectly happy studying Ski Area Operations at CMC. Within the first month here, I had decided that I was not entirely happy. I have considered transferring to Steamboat next fall to study Ski and Snowboard Business, but that’s not really what I want to study either. I have also re-considered Sierra Nevada and Gogebic. However, Sierra Nevada has so many ridiculous course requirements that I don’t really feel like going there. The only reason that I have really reconsidered Gogebic is that they have a class on instructing, so at least in all of my misery, there would be 1 class that I would enjoy.
I think the plan that Brian and I (well… mostly Brian) came up with last night is probably the best idea I’ve come up with so far. Essentially, the plan consists of doing the 2 yrs here and just getting them done with.
Although many of the majors I have looked at involve business, I’m not super incredibly interested in the business side of things. I am however incredibly interested in instructing. I also love snowboard racing (at least when I’m in my “damn good racer” mode… when I’m in my stubborn “I hate racing… this is stupid… what the hell am I doing… all I’ve done lately is get hurt” mode, things aren’t so peachy).
Correction: Last night, I told Brian that my parents said I couldn’t make a career out of instructing, today on the phone with my mom I was corrected that I was told that no one ever said I couldn’t make a career out of instructing, I was just told that I needed a fall-back plan also.
Brian’s nice simple little plan then was that I become a licensed snowboard coach, complete my degree to make the parents happy, and get on with life (I think “get on with life” translates into “go out and instruct” but I’m not entirely sure). Later on in the conversation, he suggested the idea of being a snowboard coach at an academy, along with being a school teacher. He obviously has never seen my knowledge of math and science if he thinks there is any kind of chance of being successful teaching school.
In response to some of Brian’s questions last night, “what's your ultimate goal? dream job? where do you think you want to be in 5yrs? ten yrs? any ideas?”
I would love to devote a few years to snowboard racing, and just see where it gets me. Once I have exhausted that idea, I would love to coach/instruct for several years. In a way, I guess settling down with a “normal” job appeals to me, but I can’t actually see myself doing that.
As far as my ultimate goal… I want to be a CONSISTENTLY damn good racer. I know that somewhere inside of me, I have that potential. I believe that I’ve shown that side of me before. According to Jon, I’m not a bad rider-now, if he lied about that just to make me happy, I give you permission to go and punch him, but I don’t think he lied about it. However, as AJ pointed out, I have been known to have a complete lack of enthusiasm, which has been known to beyond snowboarding. Jon has also pointed out my ‘not always enthusiastic’ approach towards snowboarding. I am trying REALLY REALLY REALLY hard to be more positive about snowboarding and life in general, and it’s come to the point where you should probably bonk me over the head when I start being too negative, just don’t hit me too hard, lol.
My dream job would probably involve doing lots and lots of instructing… I’m not entirely sure I would want to coach a team though because I like a bit of variety… So perhaps just working at a resort as an instructor would be a better idea.
Where do I want to be in 5 years? Ideally, I would like to be racing. If racing doesn’t work out, I’d happily settle for instructing 5 years from now.
10 years from now I would definitely like to be instructing, because I think racing competitively then would be a bit of a stretch, plus I can definitely see myself getting burned out by then.