Two Years and A World Apart
Well hello, LiveJournal! It's nice to see you still exist and have archived my thoughts over the past seven and a half years. Absolutely crazy... and I absolutely love it. It's been a blast to go back and dive into the things that were happening in my life. It's hysterical looking at how I used to think/talk as a high school student... all the DRAMA with friends, girls, parents, school... All of it's just completely outrageous!
And I never learned how to spell 'acquainted.' Haha, too bad we didn't have spell check in web browsers back then.
So in two years, where have we come? The last time I wrote in this journal, I was student teaching out west, biding my time until graduation, waiting for the next big thing... My own gig. I was dating Allison, doing the long distance grind. I was living in an old home with four other roommates, driving an '07 Saturn Ion that I managed to put twenty thousand miles in the span of about six months of ownership. I had a little insight as to where my life was going after graduation, and the whole process has left with far less hair than I had when I started writing in this journal!
So... a quick summation. I graduated in late April of 2009. I didn't walk, I didn't celebrate. As my peers were in their caps and gown, I was loading a truck, on my way home, never to return to Kalamazoo as a student. There were about ten jobs I applied for the entire summer, all but one in Michigan... I interviewed for maybe five, was given three second-round interviews, and was offered one job. So to today, I am currently an Instrumental Music Teacher at Oxford High School in Oxford, MI, responsible for six sections of guitar, one section of music theory, two sections of general music and the OHS Jazz Band. I also taught the marching band this past year. I'm a pretty busy guy these days! I wake up at 5:40 everyday and start school at 6:50 with my zero hour and teach until about 1:30. After that, I'm free to go home... but I usually stay for one reason or another. Two years at Oxford, and I can say it's been a heck of a roller coaster... and not like one of the puny fair roller coasters, I'm talking like, big, huge, Cedar Point roller coaster. I've had to adjust a lot of who I am to make myself fit better, but I'm at least having fun most of the time, which is the important part.
With the insanity of my daily schedule, my social life has shrunken to almost nothing at all. All my friends have gone their own ways... leaving to do this, that or the other thing. For me, making new friends has been, well let's face... I haven't made any new friends. The closest I've come are my colleagues in the band program, and even there, I feel like a piece that doesn't quite fit. I'm so much younger than everyone in the school. I'm 24, not married, no kids... Everyone else is 42, married and three young kids.
So what do I do with my time after school? I usually just watch TV, eat dinner early, play some NHL 2k11, sit on Facebook and go to bed. It's not fun, it's not exciting... but with the weather this bad, I never want to go out and do anything. A day at school is usually exhausting from the wake up alone. When the weather clears up, I'll start biking/running again and get myself back into shape. Last summer was truly amazing for that.
What else? Well I shed some light on my personal life... it's boring and lonely a lot. I get to see Allison on the weekends, the same as it's always been. I miss having friends I saw regularly though. Allison and I are doing well. She has recently started doing a lot of the driving, saving me a fortune. Speaking of cars! HA, oh my gosh the stories I could've written in here. The Ion was killed in June of '09 at the hands of wet road and watery ditch. I moved on to a Dodge Caliber, which I loved. It was a good little car... but cheap and loud. My heart had been set on the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee for a while... so I made it happen. It's AMAZING, a beast of a car. Only a lease, but hey, I can take it. With gas getting super expensive, I don't think I'll wanna hold onto it much more than three years... if that.
Oh, I don't live with my parents anymore! Finally am 100% self sustaining, living in an apartment right down the road from my old house. It's nice, small, and relatively inexpensive. I could honestly be content here. My utilities are so cheap, I just don't know why you'd want anything more. I'd rather spend my money on my sweet car anyways. ;)
I've also started a new job, teaching the Baritone/Euphoniums at the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps. I'm so incredibly excited for this. I've been able to revisit some of the advanced conceptual knowledge I haven't been able to use in years. I'm rusty! But these are great, very talented and smart kids. I can't wait to see where this takes me!
Other than that though, my life is status quo. I'm content. I wish my social life had more going on, but as I look at it from an objective position, it's probably as good as it could be given my current situation. I have a steady, acceptable income, I have Allison, and I drive a car that could run over your Prius (no I'm not really that guy, but seriously, the Prius can suck it.) I have grad school on the future, and I've started to feel out the schools I'd like to apply. I'll be going for Wind Ensemble Conducting, and I considering U of M, MSU and U of H. Lofty goals, but I think I can do it. I have a lot of work to do over the next year or so to make it happen. It's a very exciting idea, the prospect of attending any of those schools to work with some amazing ensembles. We'll see what happens!
For now, I think I'm all done with this very long post that's likely to never be read by anyone. I miss writing in here... it's nice having a place to pen down my thoughts! Oh I do miss my early college years, just acting stupid, commenting on each other's daily dribble. Oh well, those days are gone. Everyone's most too busy for it, and who honestly wants to take the time to write down what they're thinking! Haha, well, I do! Good to see you again, LJ. See you again soon (maybe.)
joe
And I never learned how to spell 'acquainted.' Haha, too bad we didn't have spell check in web browsers back then.
So in two years, where have we come? The last time I wrote in this journal, I was student teaching out west, biding my time until graduation, waiting for the next big thing... My own gig. I was dating Allison, doing the long distance grind. I was living in an old home with four other roommates, driving an '07 Saturn Ion that I managed to put twenty thousand miles in the span of about six months of ownership. I had a little insight as to where my life was going after graduation, and the whole process has left with far less hair than I had when I started writing in this journal!
So... a quick summation. I graduated in late April of 2009. I didn't walk, I didn't celebrate. As my peers were in their caps and gown, I was loading a truck, on my way home, never to return to Kalamazoo as a student. There were about ten jobs I applied for the entire summer, all but one in Michigan... I interviewed for maybe five, was given three second-round interviews, and was offered one job. So to today, I am currently an Instrumental Music Teacher at Oxford High School in Oxford, MI, responsible for six sections of guitar, one section of music theory, two sections of general music and the OHS Jazz Band. I also taught the marching band this past year. I'm a pretty busy guy these days! I wake up at 5:40 everyday and start school at 6:50 with my zero hour and teach until about 1:30. After that, I'm free to go home... but I usually stay for one reason or another. Two years at Oxford, and I can say it's been a heck of a roller coaster... and not like one of the puny fair roller coasters, I'm talking like, big, huge, Cedar Point roller coaster. I've had to adjust a lot of who I am to make myself fit better, but I'm at least having fun most of the time, which is the important part.
With the insanity of my daily schedule, my social life has shrunken to almost nothing at all. All my friends have gone their own ways... leaving to do this, that or the other thing. For me, making new friends has been, well let's face... I haven't made any new friends. The closest I've come are my colleagues in the band program, and even there, I feel like a piece that doesn't quite fit. I'm so much younger than everyone in the school. I'm 24, not married, no kids... Everyone else is 42, married and three young kids.
So what do I do with my time after school? I usually just watch TV, eat dinner early, play some NHL 2k11, sit on Facebook and go to bed. It's not fun, it's not exciting... but with the weather this bad, I never want to go out and do anything. A day at school is usually exhausting from the wake up alone. When the weather clears up, I'll start biking/running again and get myself back into shape. Last summer was truly amazing for that.
What else? Well I shed some light on my personal life... it's boring and lonely a lot. I get to see Allison on the weekends, the same as it's always been. I miss having friends I saw regularly though. Allison and I are doing well. She has recently started doing a lot of the driving, saving me a fortune. Speaking of cars! HA, oh my gosh the stories I could've written in here. The Ion was killed in June of '09 at the hands of wet road and watery ditch. I moved on to a Dodge Caliber, which I loved. It was a good little car... but cheap and loud. My heart had been set on the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee for a while... so I made it happen. It's AMAZING, a beast of a car. Only a lease, but hey, I can take it. With gas getting super expensive, I don't think I'll wanna hold onto it much more than three years... if that.
Oh, I don't live with my parents anymore! Finally am 100% self sustaining, living in an apartment right down the road from my old house. It's nice, small, and relatively inexpensive. I could honestly be content here. My utilities are so cheap, I just don't know why you'd want anything more. I'd rather spend my money on my sweet car anyways. ;)
I've also started a new job, teaching the Baritone/Euphoniums at the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps. I'm so incredibly excited for this. I've been able to revisit some of the advanced conceptual knowledge I haven't been able to use in years. I'm rusty! But these are great, very talented and smart kids. I can't wait to see where this takes me!
Other than that though, my life is status quo. I'm content. I wish my social life had more going on, but as I look at it from an objective position, it's probably as good as it could be given my current situation. I have a steady, acceptable income, I have Allison, and I drive a car that could run over your Prius (no I'm not really that guy, but seriously, the Prius can suck it.) I have grad school on the future, and I've started to feel out the schools I'd like to apply. I'll be going for Wind Ensemble Conducting, and I considering U of M, MSU and U of H. Lofty goals, but I think I can do it. I have a lot of work to do over the next year or so to make it happen. It's a very exciting idea, the prospect of attending any of those schools to work with some amazing ensembles. We'll see what happens!
For now, I think I'm all done with this very long post that's likely to never be read by anyone. I miss writing in here... it's nice having a place to pen down my thoughts! Oh I do miss my early college years, just acting stupid, commenting on each other's daily dribble. Oh well, those days are gone. Everyone's most too busy for it, and who honestly wants to take the time to write down what they're thinking! Haha, well, I do! Good to see you again, LJ. See you again soon (maybe.)
joe