I’ve been thinking about my plans for the next three years lately. I’m about halfway through my graduate program, and after I finish—presumably in May 2009—I’ll be at a point where I have to make a decision. What is the right mix of pursuits and activities (read: pursuits that are slightly less intense than work or school)? What things are truly important to me? I’ve always had a propensity to stretch myself thin, so I think this next phase of my life will be about figuring out what to keep/focus on and what to trim.
With that in mind, here is a quick, totally off the top of my head list of subjects (other than the obvious ones like family and friends) that are important to me:
- International travel—I’ve only made cursory trips to Canada and Thailand. The problem is that it seems to be getting more difficult to plan and execute a trip with each passing year. If any of my globetrotting friends are reading this, I’d love to hear any advice you might give me on how to make it happen with a busy schedule at home/work and not a lot of cash. Really, though, I think this one is in my head. If I really wanted to travel internationally, I could make it happen. Perhaps it’s fear of change that’s preventing me?
- Teaching—Not sure about this yet, but I think I’d like to teach on the side—even if it’s only Web stuff. I have a lot of work to do to get good at teaching, but the opportunities I’ve gotten so far have been very rewarding.
- Social media and constructed spaces—I’m realizing that what I want to study are online (and perhaps offline) social networks. Maybe networks that are tied to built environments (architecture), too. Or maybe I should look into becoming an architect?
- Online journalism—It’s always interested me, but I’ve never made a commitment to it past undergrad. Up until now I’ve only been an observer, working with my knowledge of online media from 1997–2001. I’d love to get a crack at really doing online journalism one day.
- Reflection—I’m finding it quite hard to keep a regular journal, and I don’t always do a good job processing my thoughts each day. What I need to do is start with the mechanical routine of forcing myself to write down something on a regular basis. Perhaps I’ll do a better job with recognizing patterns of thought and behavior in myself if I’ve got a written record here.
And there you have it, stream of consciousness style. Instead of locking me into one path, grad school has opened my mind to numerous potential (and possibly intersecting) paths. This is a good thing, but I need to move from the “expose myself to as many different ideas as possible” mindset to the “make sense of what you’ve learned and relate those things to your own life” mindset. I think.
Comments
1
Randy Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 4:38 p.m.
No volleyball on this list, wtf?
2
Rob Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 5:28 p.m.
Good point. Here's an update on the volleyball front.
I'm still playing in a league, but I don't make drop-in play very much anymore. This has the effect of hurting my play during league games, where it takes me most of the first game to get my timing down on hitting. My team has also lost a couple people this season, so we're still getting used to the new group dynamic. The biggest adjustment this season has been inconsistent passing and setting—those things mess with your timing and approach as a hitter, so we're trying to get back to fundamentals.
As for volleyball in the future, I'd like to play more pickup, attend a day-long or week-long fundamentals camp, and keep playing in a competitive league. The big problem right now is that I don't have a lot of time to play due to school.
The quarterfinals of our league playoffs are tonight, so I'll report back with an exhaustive review of our performance afterwards. Good enough? :)
3
Randy Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 6:24 p.m.
Fair enough. :-) I think your fundamentals camp should be out here on the west coast so we can chill.
4
Rob Monday, December 3, 2007 at 1:18 a.m.
Well, we lost in the quarterfinals, three games to one. We generally played better than we have all season, though, so I guess that's good. Now it's time to make the most of the offseason and come back strong for the start of the next season in January.
One of these days I'll make it out to Reno.