graduate school- the next step in my educational frontier

there seems to be a natural order of things when you think about education. many of us start out with our parents placing us in pre-school. at this point in our lives we usually think of it as the mecca of play dates, upwards of twenty children our age all with the same list of worries in life; will i get to play with the giant blocks, when will i ever be coordinated enough to cut circles instead of continually cutting the corners in hopes that eventually it will be somewhat round, and will my mom make a pb and j again for lunch while i watch sesame street at home.
next we may head into a second year of preschool (which in my case ended up to be mrs. walkers class) or suddenly find ourselves diving head first into kindergarten. still relatively minor, but i remember the daunting task of deciding whether to ride the bus or have my mother pick me up everyday at noon. naturally i chose the bus since that was what my brother and sister were doing. this tends to be about the time we have our first lesson in sex education. i remember realizing that the cylinder and hole concept had an entirely different meaning in life.

it was fifth grade on that reality checked in. multiple teachers, dwindling recess hours, girls with breasts, and switching of classrooms. how were we ever going to manage our own lockers with combinations, appointments with the "girlfriend" for that first kiss at the locker once everyone had retreated from the hallway, and having the best interior locker decorations of magazine cut outs of our sport heroes? not only that, but we had to maintain all of this along with the transformation of puberty and traveling athletic teams.

all in all, we survive, enter high school, drive cars, learn to dance better than the white boy next to us, become seniors with underclassmen girls batting their eyelashes as you walk by, and graduate onto college only to be met by something called a hangover, late night pizza, and no more mandatory studying. we become free from parents, sometimes learn to adapt on our own, finally figure out how to study the least amount as possible, go to a party, wake up for a 7:45 test the next morning, pass, and end the semester on the dean's list. and some of us have to figure that out while playing a collegiate sport and having a needy girlfriend who wants you to constantly reassure them that you in fact do enjoy their company and would never choose fraternity brothers over watching a bad movie staring anna faris with them.

then and only then are we faced with responsibility and grown-up decisions. do we get a career job or continue on with our education? now lies the crossroad that i stand before. i work as a division 1 men's soccer coach at an up and coming national powerhouse in southwest florida-a dream job to some, especially those out of college looking to make it in this profession. i get to do what i love everyday, hang out with 18-20 something year old college guys, play and coach soccer everyday, workout when i want, and the hours are as nontraditional as they come. oh, and i wear sweats and flip-flops everyday to work as well. not only am i coaching, i can relate my college studies to my everyday life in a way that some only dream of. i have been appointed head of the men's program off season strength and conditioning program which tends to be a love-hate relationship with the boys all while building a stronger resume towards continuing my education.

which brings be to now...choosing potential institutions, applications, letters of recommendation, transcript requests, graduate record examinations, statement of purposes, and everything else i can think of that takes more time than available for the sake of an additional diploma.

that is not all either, my career ambition is inching slower and slower towards a profession as a college professor. teaching is something i have always been intrigued by and not just the sweaters, argyle socks, and tweed jackets with elbow pads, but forever feeling young, enriching lives of people that will always be the age i am now, and passing on the only source of knowledge that i have found interesting enough to spend the next however many years of my life studying. that's right, if you are putting this together then you realize that in time, a phd may be in the works as well. call me crazy, but i get a bit excited about nineish more years of my life as a student only to have a useless dr. in front of my name and not work in a medical setting.

isn't education funny like that? we spend all our grade school and college years hoping and waiting for summer, christmas, and spring break, friday and saturday nights, and those random national holidays the mean no school only to voluntarily reenter school and do it all again. i am an idiot!