Carving Out My Own Trail

This guy is carving out his own path. With a machete, in the Jungle. This is how I feel sometimes.

When asked, "what do you want to do?" The answer is simple. I want to coach Track and/or Cross-Country collegiality and/or post-collegiality and I want to be a personal trainer.

Cross-Country at its finest

Most people that I tell this are surprised, some ask "why are you in college?" The answer to that is obvious, to coach at a high level you need a higher degree, to be precise, you need at least a masters degree. So then comes the tricky question, "how do you get there?"

There is no prescribed degree to coach. Here at Drury the Cross-Country Coach has a degree in law. However, the closest thing to a true degree in coaching is exercise physiology. Thus my major in Exercise Science and my two specializations in Exercise Physiology and Sports Management. My plan is three-fold: the most important part is get a bachelor's degree and admittance to a graduate school,

my special program in Exercise Physiology will allow me the knowledge that I need to understand the human body and its responses to different stimulus,

while my special program in Sports Management will teach me how to manage a team's expenses, recruiting, ect.

Here's me managing.

Doing both special programs leaves me at around 70-80 hours, so about a double major, maybe a major in a half. So when I went to the Majors/Minors Fair I was looking for a minor. I looked at minors that contained a lot of humanities like Middle East Studies, Philosophy, or Religion, because

 A) I have two departments to work with (Breech and the Exercise Science department) therefore I need to get in as many program/major specific classes as possible, as soon as possible, therefore I'll be getting a lot of gen. eds in at the end of my college career rather than in the beginning. So I want to look at a minor that contains a lot of classes that satisfy gen. ed requirements.

B)  I would enjoy studying any one of those subjects.

Here's me thinking, or philosophizing, or something. I  don't really picture me doing this naked, but if its a requirement, I'm cool with that.

 At the fair I learned that there is a global studies class that is specific to Middle East Studies, so I'll probably take that class. I also learned that the honors program has one required class and the rest are classes that you designate as honors classes, that is if you can get into the honors program to start with, as you need a letter of recommendation and there is an interview (I think I can get in).

I'm excited about about what the future holds. And with my plans, I believe I'll be prepared for it.

Why I have no money, and how not to be me

Common mistakes made with money (*cough* all my mistakes and bad habits) and how to avoid them.

How to avoid this

Put your money in a savings account and a checking account and leave it. Don't get me wrong, it's good to have both of these types of accounts. But neither of these accounts provide you with any sort of return as their interests rates are typically very low. This statement leads to the question, what else do I do with my money? You should put a portion of your money into higher risk investments like stocks or bonds. An advisable investment would be into money mutual accounts, in these investments you'll give money to a company (such as Vanguard) that will investment your money for you in a diversified fashion. Money mutual accounts will invest in stocks, bonds, and sometimes money markets.

If you walk into any store on a regular basis then you know how easy it is to pick up things you didn't come for or don't need. Flashy signs and good marketing makes it easy to spend money that you shouldn't. That's why making a list is important. Knowing what you're going into a store to buy and having a written list to remind you will help limit compulsive buying.

The gnome makes you "need" the utility gloves.

We all have interests and hobbies, many cost money to keep current or to experience. That's just fine, everyone needs a hobby, but everyone doesn't need many hobbies. Pick a hobby maybe two, and limit your expenditure to said hobby.

Or you end up like me; buried up to your neck with Trading Cards

The small things add up. Keep track of your expenses and you'll start to notice that small expenditures (a soda here, a bag of chips there) add up to a much heftier sum. If you're more aware of these things you are less likely to gut your entire paycheck on little things.