Living the Dream

I ran into my high school A.P. Psychology teacher at a local girls fast-pitch softball game after being in Kentucky for about a week.  He looked a little shocked to see me and then he asked me how I was doing.  Before I could answer he grinned a bit and questioned, "living the dream?"  I nodded in agreement and just replied with a simple, "Yep."

I have been haunted by that little cliche ever since that moment five weeks ago.  For one thing, everyone here including my 23 year old brother uses, "living the dream" in response to the question, How are you doing?

I really was living my dreams even if I was too dumb to realize it at the time.  My patience wore a little thin in Taiwan because of a series of events including, not getting paid for a couple of months due to governmental changes to the program I was working in and a severe scooter accident.  Even in a country where everything is relatively cheap compared to the U.S.A., not getting paid will cause stress and setbacks.  However, I look at my pictures and listen to my ownself describe my experience and all I can think is, Damn, I was having a great time.

Great People, Bad Idea

I met some interesting people and great friends from all around the world.  I met the man of my dreams whom I was just happy to sit next to and talk to everyday.  I have never met a person who I enjoyed so much and was just easy to be around all the time.  My biggest fear for myself is that I never find someone I love as much as him.  Sometimes I just think about hopping on a plane back to Kaohsiung just to hear him laugh.  We speak often and I miss his quirkiness and ability to make me laugh without trying.  He really is the missing link in my life and I appreciate him for everything he has ever done for me.

What pulled me away from Taiwan was a life-long dream to work in baseball.  I finally got the chance to work for my favorite team's single-A affiliate in Brooklyn.  I was so excited and everything was happening quite fast.  I made the decision to leave and chase another one of my dreams.  After working a couple of days my position along with several others were cut and became the responsibility of interns and the other staff members.  I still keep in contact in case something else pops up with the organization, but things are looking pretty grim.

I came back to Kentucky after two months of unsuccessful job hunting in the New York City area.  I am currently working as a Jack-of-all-Trades at the golf course where my dad is the executive chef.  It's alright for now, but it's micromanagement hell and I'll only be able to take it until the end of summer.  I'm trying to keep my head up in remembrance that things always get better.

I am currently in the interview/processing phase of getting onto a cruise ship with several industry players.  I would like to leave after my cousin's wedding on October 1st, but I really can't afford to turn down a job if they want me sooner.  All I know is that I don't want to stay in Cincinnati.  The only good thing about living here is my family and a few old friends.  I really enjoy getting to see my little cousins they are incredibly cute and their personalities are hysterical.  However, I really want to keep traveling and seeing the world, and I really can't do that if I take a normal job and stay here.  Two weeks a year just isn't what I'm looking for.

Most cautious 3 year old one will ever meet

So, yep I guess I am living the dream...My dream.  I know I have not lived my life by "normal" standards, but what is normal?  My dreams do include children and a husband eventually but for right now I'm just trying to survive everyday.  I will not put my children what I went through as a kid.  I am a big risk taker and do live my life with reckless abandon, but growing up in the environment I grew up in sucked, and I refuse to put kids through it.  For now I'm going to keep exploring and possibly seek further education.

What are your dreams?  Do you attempt to reach them or you see them as a futile task and just settle for whatever you can get?  What's stopping you from taking a chance?  Tomorrow is not guaranteed to anyone.  There are no rules to this.  Get out there and live your life.  Down periods and lulls of activity will happen, but they are temporary, don't give up.  Whatever you do, keep dreaming.

The Secret of My Non Success: I Have No Life Path

The Secret of My Non Success: I Have No Life Path: "...or so it seems. Yesterday started with me packing my life up about 5 hours before I needed to be at the airport...I cried a little bit ..."

I Have No Life Path

...or so it seems.

Yesterday started with me packing my life up about 5 hours before I needed to be at the airport...I cried a little bit as I said my good-byes to my aunt and cousin at the curbside check-in at JFK, but I cried a lot the entire plane ride to Northern Kentucky.  I grew up here and I've never been especially fond of this area of the country.  The biggest dilemma for my spirit here is the lack of any coastal shoreline.  The other issues I have are, the cliquish Appalachian attitudes, the right-wing nuts, the lack of any actual culture, and the awful winter. 


There are some plus sides to living here.  There are horse tracks everywhere and riverboat casinos, there is little pollution, I have some family and friends here, and I love Cincinnati's radio stations.


I had been living on Long Island for two months after teaching English for nine months in Taiwan.  I was brought to New York by a job offer by a local minor league baseball team and after working a couple of days they cut my position do to the inability to pay that person.  I hung out in New York looking for jobs left and right and then one day the team I was supposed to initially work for called me back up when someone in their association would be leaving.  That person decided not to leave so I was still out of a job.  


After talking to my father one day he said that some things would be changing around the golf course where he's the Executive Chef at(in Cincinnati for some reason the local dialect uses prepositions at the end of sentences).  Well after speaking with the owner of the club she offered me a job being a Jack-of-all-Trades at the course in order to learn every last thing I would need to know in order to run a golf course/banquet hall.  I really couldn't turn the opportunity down, especially in my current jobless state.  So here I am back in Northern Kentucky, again.  I kind of miss my friends and family so it's not all that bad, oh, and I get to work at a golf course again.  For those of you that have worked at a course you know what's up.  After playing in the local women's amateur this summer I intend to take my PAT and rules test to be a club pro.  It only took me 10 years but I'm finally mature and patient enough to play golf seriously.


So now within one years time I've lived in three different states and another country.  I feel as if I'm just kind of rolling along and going with the punches.  I don't really mind just rolling along but I am ready for a little stability in my life and I know I won't stay in Kentucky too long.  In the mean time I'll just work and try to build revenue for the club while learning as much as I can.  Who knows maybe this will turn into a management position, maybe it won't.  I have no idea where I'll be after October, I'm thinking 1 of 3 places, Florida, New York, or another country anywhere.  


One day I'll find my place in life.

What Sport Management Is and What Sport Management is Not

So, I'm on the job hunt again and I am dealing with lots of frustration; mainly because of the title of my major, Sport Management.  I am beginning to think that when people see that I have a Sport Management degree they begin to question why I am applying for a job in the business world.  I have compiled a list for people that are possibly wanting to major in Sport Management, hiring managers that see Sport Management and automatically assume Gym, and for the general public or parents that would like a bit more information on the subject.

Sport Management is:

- Essentially Business Management with a focus on companies all over the global marketplace especially linked to Sport, we are also required to study general business as part of the major.

- A tough hands-on major that require students to be intelligent and quick on their feet.

- A dynamic major with topics including Entrepreneurship, Sociology, Globalization, Law, Event Management and Marketing.

Sport Management is Not:

- Kinesiology or Exercise Science

- An easy major.  Laziness does not prevail in Sport Management programs. 

- An individual or shy persons major.

The Sport Management degree is hands-on with students having to multi-task and manage several different events and projects at one time.  Every thing a student does is also documented (the shortest report of my work that was handed in was 20 pages long).  Teachers do not drone on and on in the front of the classroom, there is no time for that.  Students are given a syllabus expected to keep up with the readings and work.  If something needs to be instructed it is, but no spoon feeding here.  Students will spend three times the amount of time with their classmates outside of the classroom than in it.  All work no play, except in Recreation Management.  Recreation Management requires lots of play, but keep in mind that takes lots of planning too.

One must be a team player to survive this major and all work is always presented to the professor and class.  Aside from group presentations and events students will have individual speeches to give in every class for at least five minutes as an underclassman and sometimes the entire period as an upperclassman.

I hope this clears up some things about Sport Management.  I always do my homework before going into an interview and I don't want to be asked again about Kinesiology as part of my course work in Sport Management.  They are two very different majors.

I Live In Miami

Actually, I live in Taiwan.  Miami however, is my usual state of mind.  I listen to Gloria Estefan, Jon Secada, Huey Lewis, Phil Collins, Paul Simon and Steve Winwood everyday.  This helps me maintain a pretty mello state of being.  Miami to me is about the awesome sea air, great winter weather, and just all around fun-in-the-sun.  How could a person be sad here? My only real worry in Miami, as a single white female, is the Ice Box Killer, Trinity and of having to sit in traffic while film is being wasted on CSI: Miami.

Found this on the Digital Hairshirt blog.  My roommate also uses it as his binder cover.

I ate a Cuban sandwich this morning for breakfast.  It was actually a bagel with bacon and egg on it, but I imagined it as something else for the sake of sanity.

So where do you live?  Do you live on a warm Caribbean Island with hot weather and cool drinks? Do you prefer the fresh powder and hot cocoa in the Rockies?  Where do you live in your mind?  What's your happy place?  Go there when you are really feeling sad, it should cheer you up.  If it doesn't you need to start hanging out with five-year olds.  They have lots of good ideas on what the world should be like.

On my way to work this morning on the flying train I saw a unicorn running free in a field of sunflowers.  Gnomes made me some of the best super-power coffee ever, and my hover board trip from the flying train station to the castle I work in was exceptionally smooth.  It's been an awesome day so far.

Not Everyone is Destined For Greatness

Honestly, who wants to be successful?  I'm happy with being a complete failure.  If I wasn't a failure, I'd be a Naval Academy alum currently stationed on some aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.  Instead I'm an ESL teacher in Taiwan.  It's a good thing life didn't turn out as planned because I love my relatively simple life on this lovely tropical island.  I never let life get me down too much, I think being a funeral director taught me not to dwell too much on things, forgive quickly, and just be thankful you get to see the light of another day.

A successful person, I find, has their life planned out with achievable goals and the motivation to reach those goals.  They are organized, motivated and carry all the other characteristics wanted on all the job postings I read daily.  My resume says that I carry these characteristics but that's just because I know how to write an effective resume.

I find that I prefer looking for my keys for 10 minutes every time I try to leave the house(I've actually squeezed this time into my thoughts for when I'm trying to leave the house. Be sure to leave 5-10 minutes for key search), instead of actually working I prefer killing my 7 1/2 (I'm half an hour late every day) office hours on facebook, blogsites and youtube, and I prefer questioning authority rather than just follow it.  These attributes make my life difficult sometimes, get me into trouble with all sorts of people, and cause stress, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

I think too many people get upset when you talk of their shortcomings.  A lot of people get down-right defensive about it, and do not understand themselves, abilities, wants, or desires...They keep trying for the impossible and eventually die miserable because they didn't accomplish what they wanted to, or what they thought they wanted to based upon their ill-forsaken ego or societal standards.  Give it up already "everybody is created equal" is the biggest load of crap ever fed to the general public.

I have goals, but I never reach them, ever.  I always stray off on to some other path.  There is only one thing that I ever really set out to do over a long period of time and was able to do it.  I graduated from university, barely, and another semester would have killed me for sure.  So I guess my only real success is that I graduated college and I've made it into my late twenties.  If it weren't for my flexibility and ability to not care about anything, I'd be six-feet under.  So here I am, treading along, just living, and not really being successful at anything but being happy.  Lots of unsuccessfulness to come to me still, I'm sure of it.