THE GOOD LIFE

Graduation is Saturday January 10, 2009! I am so excited!

I have spent the last 13 months in a perpetual rhythm of on-line classes. Sometimes on-line school sucks, and sometimes it does not. Since October 2007, I have had 5.5 weeks of classes, with a 1 week break in-between.

Several times I have almost hit, or began to hit burnout. The schedule is rigorous, teachers don’t accept most late work, no excuses. Not that I would turn in a late assignment, but it was tempting on a few occasions! Maintaining the momentum I have over the last 13 months has been stressful, monotonous and sometimes overwhelming. I have had assignments due over holidays (like next week I have one due on Christmas day), and I have had assignments due over my family vacation this last summer. Plus, I have worked 40 hours per week the entire time I have been in by Undergraduate program.

But, I will be done with all assignments and will have the following on my resume:

• Bachelors of Business Administration Concentration in Management
• Professional Certificates:
  • Basics of Accounting and Finance
  • Business Fundamentals
  • Business in the Global Environment
  • Human Resource Development
  • Project Planning

On top of all of that wonderful stuff,  I will be graduating with either Cum Laude or Magna Cum Laude depending on my final grades for my last two classes! I am currently .03 away from Suma Cum Laude so hopefully that will happen! That would be great!

So, now I will have 8 months to relax and be a normal person with no school before heading back for my Masters in Education from University of Denver (hopefully). I am finishing up on my application and will have it submitted the first part of January 2009 so that I can get some scholarships, grants and other funding.

School sucks, but only for a while! I just cannot wait to be done with this program and then I will focus on my Masters after a much needed break!

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.  ~Benjamin Franklin

I have two parts to my post today. The first is about my first 14er and the second is about my future educational plans which have changed yet again! Read on!

HURON PEAK: MY FIRST 14ER!

Yesterday I took a trip to tackle my first Colorado 14er: Huron Peak. For those of you who do not know, a 14er is one of Colorado’s 54 mountains that have a summit elevation of 14,000 feet or more. Huron Peak is, out of a class scale of 1-4, where 4 is the most difficult and can require rock climbing gear, a class 2. I didn’t think that it was going to be all that difficult to climb. I was wrong! It was exhausting!

First off, a group of friends, five of us total, went up to a campsite, just North of Leadville, and found a spot. It was about 9PM when we finally got our tents set up and got to bed. It was chilly that night at about 10,000 feet, but not too bad…until we got further into the evening. I don’t think I slept but a total of 1-2 hours. It was obviously cold because when we woke up in the morning, there was frost all over our tents, the car, the ground…everything! I was frozen to the core! 

We started up the mountain at about 7AM, and it was not long before we were taking a break. My heart was racing, my lungs were moving fast trying to catch my breath, and it was still cold! We camped at around or just above 10,000 feet and Huron Peak is just barley a 14er by 3 feet. Yes, it is 14,003 feet above sea level. The trail is about 5.5 miles round trip with a 3,500 foot elevation gain from where we were camping. That is an elevation gain of, on average, 8.3 feet per foot! Essentially, it is pretty much uphill the entire way to the top! 

The forest was beautiful, and when we got to the tree line at about 12,000 feet, the views just expanded to include several other 14ers and wide open spaces. The tundra was nice and quiet, Marmots and other little critters were everywhere. We reached 13,000 feet at around 1030AM. My friend and I were looking at the last 1,000 feet in elevation, and determined that we just cannot muster enough strength and stamina to continue and summit the mountain. We decided to stop at 13,000 feet and head back down a little ways and have lunch. The others pressed on, summated and returned in just over an hour. I was impressed with their stamina and their ability to have a conversation while they were hiking! Then again, two of my friends have hiked 11 other 14ers previously, and my other friend had hiked 17! They are native Coloradans so they have the lung capacity!

The way down was no pick-nick either. Without much flat spots on the trail, we practically ran down the mountain. Let me be the first to tell you that going downhill, 3500 feet in elevation without having a flat spot to rest the legs is very unpleasant. As if your legs were not tired enough from climbing up, now you have to support your whole body going down, and it was hard! Well, we finally made it down, packed up our gear and headed back home. I tell you, I slept for 12 hours last night without waking once! I was exhausted!

While I didn’t summit Huron Peak, I am happy that I got to 13,000 feet. That is a lot of hiking and elevation to hike for a kid from Arizona who has been in Colorado for only a year! Next time, I am going to climb a class 1, in the summer, and I am going to make it to the top! I am going to train and get my body into shape for that climb because it is the most taxing, hard, physically demanding activity I have done since living here. At the same time, it was beautiful and exhilarating at the same time!

MY FUTURE EDUCATIONAL PLANS

So ever since high school, I have entertained the though of being in education, both as a teacher and in an administrative capacity (principal or dean, etc.). All of the many career “tests” I have taken have placed my first or second career in education, mainly in a teaching role. For the most part I have largely ignored that though and skill until now.

I will graduate in December with a bachelors degree in Business Administration but want to get into education. I am looking at several different schools in my area and am finding some great programs that are offered that would allow me to obtain my M.Ed. or Master of Education. I would like to teach elementary school for a while, and then work my way into administration, including principal. Someday, I would love to teach or be an administrator at a university and I think the teaching experience would be helpful and play to my advantage. 

So, that is it. If I find a program that I like and can afford, I would like to start classes in August. Hopefully that would come to fruition. I would like to get into a career of some sort soon, and teaching would be awesome!