Success Warrior: Alan B. Rowley II - Beachbody.com, P90X, Voluntaryism, Voluntarism

Changing Course

So,

My life is in a larger state of flux than usual and yesterday I made a move in an attempt to anticipate where I may be heading.  I met with a counselor from Utah State University, the school where I started college about 25 years ago.  I came home and applied for re-admission. 

I'm going to be changing schools, changing majors, and changing pace.

A correction in course, for me.

It looks as if we may be moving back to Utah within the next year.  At least, it seems that way right now.  I'm not going to go into all of those details as of yet but just say that I have a strong belief that it's going to happen. 

My current schooling was based on my current situation and short term goals and those have to be chucked now in favor of new ones. 

First, I have to slow down my school pace markedly.  This semester has been an incredible learning experience for me.  I've learned about my limits, how poorly the US school system functions, how much my son craves time with me, and what I'm going to have to just deal with.  In order to take on the role of full-time student, I have had to cut down on *every* other area of my life.  Every.  There is no part that hasn't been affected.  Trying to keep it all up was actually starting to make me feel physically ill.  That's when I started cutting things.  The number of weeks left in the semester has become a mantra in our house.

I'll only be taking 6 credits per semester until we get moved to where ever we are going and then I'll bump it up to 9 credits and that's where it's going to stay.  I wanted to get my degree as quickly as possible but the costs were too high so I'm going to ease back and just be content that I'm moving forward.

I'm also going to be setting my sights on teaching at the college level.  That was always the goal but I was going to start in the high school level because the local (local meaning 120 miles away from here) college had a program for secondary elementary and the credits are 1/3rd the cost of the University and there is a high school here but no college.  I wasn't sure how long we would be here and becoming a college instructor where there is no college didn't seem to make sense.  Moving into Utah now removes the need for the detour into the high school. 

It does mean that I've taken a couple of classes that I don't need but such is life.  Maybe they'll count for something in the long run.

I'm going to keep going in English.  I have always loved words and I love studying them.  I'm sure that I would give off the same passion as a teacher.  That is one thing that I have learned from my education classes and from interviewing several principals.  Knowledge is obviously essential to teaching but passion is what makes a great teacher. 

I am hoping to finish out this semester in strong fashion.  My work is starting to struggle because I'm getting burned out.  Tonight I have to write up some kind of Marxist critique for some aspect of Sinclair Lewis's Main Street.  I managed to finish reading the book today and the assignment is due by midnight.

That will be one benefit to cutting my class load in half.  Maybe I can put more effort into my work.  As it is now, it feels like I'm swimming as hard as I can upstream at the edge of the waterfall.  I never seem to get ahead and I know that no matter how tired I get, if I stop paddling with all my might, I'm going over the edge.  Writers talk about different drafts for their work.  Right now, I have one draft.  What ever I manage to get on paper before the deadline is the final draft.  There is no rough draft, no refining, no reworking of ideas.  I feel good as long as I beat the deadline. 

I want to thank everyone that has been purchasing BeachBody products from my site.  Next semester, I may be cutting back on classes but tuition is going up by 3X for each credit.  Every little bit helps and I am incredibly grateful to all of you.  If you come across anyone looking for quality exercise DVDs, supplements, or equipment, please send them my way.  Thank you.

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Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

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Cuz I Like Kids

I'm entering the world of teaching and one of the very first assignments in one of my education classes was a paper on, "Why I want to be a teacher."

This paper came with a couple of explicit instructions:

1.  It can't contain the phrase, "because I like kids."
2.  It should evoke a sense of passion.

I was so happy to see rule #1 because I really don't like kids other than my own.  Whew!  The assumption made by the instructor is that anyone wanting to become a teacher likes kids so don't even bother putting it down.  You know what they say about assumptions.  It makes an ass out of u and mptions.

So I wrote my short paper in typical Donkey fashion ("It's getting him to shut up that's the trick") and luckily I did not get marked down for my inability to keep things brief.  In fact, I found this note today about my paper from the instructor:

"Extremely powerful and one of the better organized papers I have read. You sound quite passionate, which is exactly what we need in the profession. I guess I should say life-style instead of profession."

Don't hold me to that "life-style" thing too closely.  My dad was a teacher and my sister and brother-in-law are teachers and they spend way more time at the school than I ever plan to.  When we get together, all they talk about is school.  That's how it was in police work too.  Cops don't *do* police work.  Cops *live* police work.  I'm looking to escape that sort of thing.

I just want to spend some time with my family.  You know, the kids that I like.  =)

***

Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

Feel free to "friend" me on Facebook