Thursday, May 14, 2009

Until this Bike Racing Thing Pans Out

School is pretty much over for me for the year. I have one paper to write for my environmental philosophy course on the ethical decisions we ought to make concerning the Mount Emmons mine, but I will wait another day or two to work on that and get my brain refreshed after a horrendous week last week.

In the meantime the big thing that has been going on is the attempt to find a job or choose a career to eventually go into, until this bike racing thing pans out. Unfortunately I don't have a trust fund to fall back on from my parents (college professor and high school teacher's salaries do not quite provide enough) such that I could pursue bike racing full time with an attempt at making it big in the next couple of years. This means I have to work. As time rolls on and I continue to study philosophy at the graduate level I become less and less certain as to what I want to do.

I've considered many options. For example, marketing. This seems like a blast. Having to come up with a different campaign all the time for different clients. Work would never be dull. It would be exceptionally creative and challenging. Then again it means going back to Undergrad for some communications/marketing classes, which at this point in my life I am not too keen on. I think I need a break from school.

I've also spent a fair amount of considering architecture/design. In college I spent a lot of time doing lighting design at the Bard College Theatre and Dance departments, where I would do everything from technical work to creating designs for various shows. I loved it. I loved learning how to use VectorWorks and do computer drafting of lighting plots. All the different design elements you had to think of and the different challenges that every project required. Even talking with the many lighting designers and set designers we had come through the halls of the Fisher Center were great. In order to do this I would have a huge amount of schooling to continue with. While an undergrad at Bard I steered away from the sciences and math courses because I thought my interests were primarily in the humanities, maybe I was just rebelling against my parents (both scientists) or maybe I was just another lost college student soul. But I would pretty much have to make up years of engineering, physics, and design/urban development classes to accomplish this goal. Another aspect I would need to consider is my interest in sustainable living. Today we MUST begin and continue to grow sustainable houses in the United States and the world in order to solve or ameliorate our growing energy needs. This would require even more studying into sustainability practices and the sciences of solar power, water treatment, geo-thermal heating/cooling to understand better how they work, allowing me to incorporate them together.

Still, wouldn't it be great if I could make a good living racing my bike? No school just dedicated training, resting, and racing. Free time to pursue any interests I might have while not on the bike and the ability to travel the world for work. That certainly would be a great job, just might take a long time.

Until then, the job search continues for any career that looks promising so that I can pay the bills and get to the next race.

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