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.