Ulog #7: Crushing college students dreams!
Its the right thing to do.
Fall classes started this week at Arizona State University where I'm an Academic Adviser for the Exercise Science program. This week I have had hundreds of students coming into my office for appointments asking for my help in making life decisions. This has left me with ZERO time to spend on steemit hence the lack of posting lately.
As you can expect some of these appointments have ended on a positive note and others have ended with a few tears being shed on the way out the door. Life is hard sometimes. If you have attended college yourself you know that they are really good at selling you the dream. All the rah-rah speeches during the welcoming events place that little sparkle in student's eyes and then it's up to me to bring them back to reality while explaining to them that they cannot get into medical school with a 2.0 GPA.
It sounds like a tough position to be in, but I don't mind being the bearer of bad news. I guess you can call me a realist. Far to often I hear of other advisers that avoid the tough conversation ultimately leading the students down a path of financial burden and misery as they continue to under perform in tough science classes that they have no business being in.
I definitely do not enjoy telling a student that they need to rethink their life plan, but I know I'm doing them a HUGE favor in the long run. College is expensive and these students do themselves a disservice repeating failed courses two and three times chasing a dream that has already become unattainable once you consider how competitive professional schools are. After the bad news has been delivered I do my best to help them refocus their efforts on a path that is more suitable for them to ensure that they are successful.
The flow of students through our offices won't stop completely, but it should slow down considerably over the next week until Spring registration opens sometime in October. This means I need to take full advantage of the newly found free time I have and start posting again.
Now I need to plan out my next career move.
After the exhaustive week of helping everyone else figure out what they should be doing with their lives it is time to revisit my life plan as well. After graduating from ASU with a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science I achieved my "dream job" as a Sports Performance Coach training professional athletes for a company called EXOS. Then life happened and I needed to find a job with better benefits with the arrival of my daughter.
So here I am advising students at my alma mater that are following the same educational path that I took. The position I am currently in is definitely not where I envision myself being two years from now, but in the moment it has its advantages. One being able to get my masters degree for free essentially.
This is where I have hit a small road block as I try to decide where I want to be professionally 10 years from now and what degree may help me get there. At the moment I'm considering completing a masters degree in Sports Law & Business and eventually becoming an Athletic Director at the collegiate level, but I haven't 100% committed to that idea yet. So I will continue to explore my options until I decide on the right career path for me moving forward. Who knows maybe I will find some inspiration somewhere on Steemit that will open a new avenue that I'm not currently considering.
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It's good to be realistic with young people and at the same time encourage them in directions that can really pay off for them. You're right that it makes no sense to suffer pursuing something you'll never be great at. Being great at what you do is one of the most important aspects of happiness for most people, especially those of us raised in a place like America, where so much self-esteem comes from productive activity.
I guess you're exploring that same question. What do you want to be great at?
That is a great question and one I will definitely need to ponder. I've been successful with all of my previous career pursuits, but I am searching for that forever career that will put a smile on my face every day while doing it.
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