I had gone back to the University of Louisville with every intention of earning a teaching degree. I was quickly reminded of the miserable educational experience I had endured. I find great fault within the system, and after a good amount of waffling, I decided that it was not a system within which I could survive. I slowed down my schooling, opting for a couple of the required general education classes each semester, until I figured out what my next move would be.
Fast-forward to the present. As I’m writing this post, I’m roughly two weeks away from beginning two of my final three gen-eds, and I’m still as clueless as ever. The clock is winding down, and I absolutely need to decide on a major soon. Problem is, I can’t see myself in any sort of “big-boy” job. I’ll be visiting the career counseling center on campus, taking personality tests and visiting career fairs, but I’m not holding out much hope. All of the advice I’ve seen on the topic generally boils down to a simply idea: Do What You Love. With that in mind, I decided to take stock of the things that I love to do, and see where that gets me.
I. Consuming Great Media
A few days ago, I watched Christopher Nolan’s Inception for the seventh or eighth time, three of which were in-theater viewings. Despite an intimate familiarity with the plot and dialogue, I still felt a rush of excitement during the action scenes, and lines of dialogue still sent chills down my spine and coated my arm with goosebumps. I can recall distinct instances when songs would unexpectedly cause me to choke-up, and hold back tears. There have been movies and television shows that have made me laugh until my sides hurt, bawled openly in public, and ponder very real questions of morality, justice, philosophy, and humanity. At the conclusion of some movies or books, I sit motionless and silent for a few minutes, in awe of what I had just experienced.
There isn’t much time during an average day that I’m not consuming or discussing some kind of media, and I love every second of it. How people don’t wait with baited breath for the newest Scorsese film, Joss Whedon’s new show or Lupe Fiasco’s new album, I’ll never know.
II. Playing Games
I see games as unique sets of challenges, a series of wagers that you can’t do something. “I bet you can’t use this army to capture my King, while I simultaneously try to do the same to you”, “I bet you can’t throw this ball into that hoop more times than I can”, or “I bet you can’t work with a team to rid the globe of these four diseases while outbreaks happen in different countries at once”. Overcoming these obstacles rewards the player with a distinct and wonderful sense of accomplishment.
In addition to a fun way to spend an hour or two, games are tremendous educational opportunities. Most great games encourage creative thinking and strategic discipline. Athletic outings offer very obvious benefits to one's’ health, while promoting teamwork and good sportsmanship. I’ve experienced few things better than teaching a new game, and then watching as people piece together gameplans and strategies in real-time, their eyes lighting up with all of the possibilities, rising to whatever the current wager may be. “You bet I can’t? Just watch me.”
IV. Working With A+ Kids
Anyone that works with kids and tells you they like them all the same is lying to you. I’ve worked for the Y’s before-and-after school program for almost a decade now. Each year, there are always some kids that stand out above the rest. I’m not sure what it is. They aren’t always the best behaved. They aren’t always the smartest, or the most polite. For whatever reason, though, these A+ kids are just much more fun to interact with. I can think of nothing that has impacted me more than getting to work day-in and day-out with those kids. Getting to watch them grow has been amazing, and it gets harder every year as more and more graduate and move on to new schools.
There have been fewer and fewer A+ kids as time marches on. Maybe I’m getting burnt out on the job. Maybe, when I started, Bowen Elementary simply experienced an abnormally high number of these kids. I dunno. I was fortunate enough to spend this past summer with some of these A+ kids from the past few years at a summer camp for teens. It was easily the best summer I’ve had with the Y, and only helped to solidify in my mind what I had already began to suspect: I didn’t like working with just any group of kids; I liked working with awesome kids.
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Now, someone tell me how to combine all of that into a career, and I’ll be good to go!
