Hey everyone, hope all has been well in your world. Its been a while since I’ve written on the blog, actually its been a week but I used to write everyday and I’ve heard from some of you about that.
I would love to write everyday…before I continue, time for you know what…
Music to listen to: In a State by UNKLE
Some chilled music for you.
So, I would enjoy writing on Pourtout Pancakes every day, but life honestly gets in the way.
When I was a grad assistant at Belmont in athletics, I had more free time, especially during the day, so there was more opportunity to write. I could cheat and actually write posts while at work. I don’t have that luxury with my current job.
My schedule consists of waking up about 6:30 a.m., going to the gym from 7-9, working at the job from 9-5:30, getting home at 6 p.m. and taking care of personal needs before going to bed around 11 p.m.
The job has really drained me of energy and when I get home, the first thing that I want to do is go to bed. This doesn’t lead to good times to write.
Its even affected my New Year’s Life Alterations. I haven’t taken one French lesson, haven’t played one note on a guitar, haven’t talked to my father, you get the idea.
Before this turns into me bitching about my job, that’s not the case. The job is good but it’s a job, if that makes sense.
But the reality of the matter is that I haven’t been happy with one aspect of my life the past few weeks.
I’m going through a mid-career crisis.
I’m unhappy with the path of my career and where I’m at with it right now. I’m 28 and my current position is entry level and is in essence a paid internship.
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had a history of changing my career interests. When I was in fifth grade, I wanted to be an engineer so that I could design sports stadiums. Maybe it was attending games in the dump known as the old Shea Stadium to see the New York Mets that inspired this, me wanting to build something better. However, my interest in math didn’t stay and I moved on.
When I first started high school, I wanted to be a doctor that performed surgeries on professional athletes like Dr. James Andrews. The process of reaching this goal, particularly medical school, didn’t interest me.
When I first started undergrad at Vandy, I wanted to be a sports psychologist but that got sidetracked when I wanted to become a sports agent. This even led me to applying to law schools for three straight years after I graduated college. I didn’t get into any of them.
Since graduating college, I’ve interned at a fashion magazine, worked in a public relations firm that specialized in clients in the financial industry, worked at a men’s clothing store, was a communications assistant for a non-profit organization specializing in assisting underprivileged children in public schools, was a media relations assistant at two colleges and got a masters degree in sport administration. Now, I work in professional wrestling.
You would think with all of that stuff, I would have a more established career but it hasn’t happened. Part of it is economics. Every industry has experienced hard times in the past two years but sports has been feeling it a lot. If it was 10 years ago, I would have a full-time job, probably middle-management and be in a better financial position. Now, people like me are getting turned down for unpaid internships.
But some of it has to go on me as well. I underperformed in college and barely graduated, which I was reminded of last night and will get to later. If I got better grades, I would have probably had a job right out of school and my path may have been different. I could have been a better employee at some of those other places I’ve worked. Shoot, I can be a better employee right now, you can always improve your work performance.
So, I sit here writing on my blog late on a Wednesday night and want better for myself. I’ve been evaluating my career and learned that there is a connection between my professional happiness and personal contentment, meaning if I’m unhappy with my career, it affects a large part of how I feel overall.
I’ve been thinking about whether I want to work in sports at all. it’s a fun industry that I have a lot of experience in but the grind is a bit much, especially if I want to have a family of my own in the future. Plus, the pay isn’t good.
But then I think about how important sports are in my life. it’s the one thing outside of my family that has kept me sane over the years. I love it too much. Plus, I’m pretty darn good in the industry. I’ve never had a lot of money in my life so having a lot or a little of it isn’t going to worry me.
So then you go into what part of sports do I like the most. Do I want to get into coaching? Maybe game management? Public relations and marketing? Journalism? Law?
I then think back to my studies in sport management and my favorite class was sports law. I’ve always enjoyed studying law and merging that with sports was exciting. Learning about labor law, antitrust issues, constitutional law, things like that excite me. I still crack open the sports law text book for fun reading.
So do I want to be a sports lawyer now? Dare I say it, does this mean that I have to go to law school? Can I even afford law school? The questions keep coming.
I do know that I like sports, particularly the legal matters in relation to it. I also like business journalism, how do I merge these things together? Do I start my own sports law/business journalism publication? Do I make a blog? Do I work for a publication, sports or non-sports related, to gain the experience in that field?
To do these things, do I have to move to a bigger market than Nashville?
I like mixed martial arts, do I start my own MMA organization?
One final thought. I was talking with my buddy Andrew last week and my interest in law came up. I told him about how I applied to law schools and decided not to go in the end. So last night, I decide to check to see if my LSAC account was still open…oh, to apply to law school, you register with the LSAC and they handle your LSAT, transcript, letters of recommendation, sometimes school applications, etc.
Sure enough, it still is and all of that stuff mentioned above is still on file. I even got to see my Vandy transcript for the first time in years and saw my grades. They weren’t good, in fact, they were pitiful. My LSAT scores weren’t much better. Now I understand why law schools didn’t accept me as a 22-year old with those credentials.
I think I wasn’t ready for it overall. I was still in a sheltered state and didn’t have life experience. Honestly, if I went to law school at 22, I would have failed out of it.
But now, I’ve matured greatly in all aspects of my life and have gotten smarter or at least know how to handle it.
I’m seriously considering this option now but I may change my thoughts tomorrow, hence the mid-career crisis.
In the end, I'll figure something out or it will be done for me. Either way, I'll keep focusing and keep it moving.
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