T Nation

Finally Gonna Do It!

Off Topic
#1

Ok so after about 4 years of sitting here at my job, not wanting to be here, I am going to do something about it. This spring I will be selling my house, and moving in with mom and dad. This will save me about 1000 a month and I will be able to pay all my debt off in a year or so. This coming fall I am going back to school, probably an online thing while I work here at the office. Since I spend hours a day reading T-Nation and other like sites, I figured that what I really would like to do is to get a sports nutrition, sports science, or other like degree. Move to florida where the market (and the weather) is better and just start my new life down there.

This will also help me with my other goal which is to be a PRO golfer and I will be able to golf year round instead of 5 months a year.

So… for any of you in the business so to speak, what are some things I should know, things I should look for, specific majors, specific universities.

What mistakes did any of you make that if you had to do over you would change. what divisions of the industry are the most rewarding, not just monetary, but mentally/spiritually etc…

Any advice and help are greatly appreciated. I am looking at a 2-3 year goal of moving down to florida.

#2

Congratulations, V!

This is VERY refreshing to see:

  1. No excuses…

  2. Not blaming anyone for your Life…

  3. Taking charge of your own Life (at what is probably a “scary” step?)

My hat goes off to you!

Mufasa

#3

Congrates on taking the Bull by the Horns! This is what a Man is suposed to do!

Getting Debt free is a must if you want to surge ahead! I like your plan.

When I was 28 I forged ahead against many of my families better judgements and left the profession I was in to return to school.

Returning to school ment I left a good job with benefits.

It also ment leaving a feild I was trying to break into that I originally graduated from college with a specialized degree in. I had tried for 4 years to get into this feild and there were now 2 openings that I could choose from and both were mine if I wanted them.

Returning to school also ment a new challenge. Something totally different in study area than what I had originally gone for. It also ment once graduated, and employed, twice the salary of my past job goal.

I chose to except the challenge and move on. I would not want to think about “What Could Have Been” the rest of my life if I hadnt!

#4

Mate, what you are doing is fantastic.
Believe me. If you didn’t do this you will regret it for the rest of your life. Well done.

#5

Congratulations, you got balls my friend. I am trying to make a similar life change myself. I have a job that utilizes my current degree (finance) but is definitely not something I want to do the rest of my life. I have convinced my wife that the best thing for me to do is go back to school, and obtain a degree in a different discipline. Now I have to walk the walk, it is a hard first step, but I have been told that once you take it, you will feel a hundred times better. Good luck to you.

#6

Letting go of the rock eh?

Well done mate.

“This spring I will be selling my house, and moving in with mom and dad. This will save me about 1000 a month and I will be able to pay all my debt off in a year or so. This coming fall I am going back to school”

Its particularly hard that in some peoples eyes you’ll be “taking a step back”…but you know it’ll lead to great things.

The amazing thing is, in a few years everyone will look at your life and think that you are “really lucky” and that things just “come to you”.

Most people cannot even frickin formulate goals let alone life changing ones- prolly too scared to look more than 10 mins into the future as they’ll die of disappointment.

Anyway- jolly good show old boy.

J

#7

Thanks for the support guys, Also thanks to TC for writing the last Atomic Dog. I have been procrastinating making this decision for a loooong time now due to the fact that it will disrupt other peoples lives. After reading that I was like “fuck it” went straght and told my parents what I wanted to do and … they were supportive and both thought it would be a good move for me as they can see my unhappiness in my current situation.

My situation by the way is that I run our family insurance agency. My dad owns it but has gotten a job as a quality manager for a hospital. I work with my Ex girlfriend and my mom, which really isn’t as bad as it sounds. I just friggin hate listening to people bitch about a 10 dollar a year increase in thier auto insurance. I hate kissing peoples asses when inside I feel like telling them to go fuck themselves. I hate when “the customer is always right” when they are idiots who can’t pay thier bill on time and I constanly have to pull strings for them and get no gratitude from them. In fact, most of them are the ones bitching about the 10 dollar increases.

I hate winter depression and allthough this year it was mild, (I am bitching right now right?) it is still a big drain on life, gains on the golf course, Gains in the gym, etc… Florida is perfect, and I don’t even care if that Canary Island thing crashes and kills me in a mega tsunami. It will be worth in and hell I may just grab a surf board and try to ride that big ole bitch out to Mexico or something.

I feel like the past few years I have been trapped in a black sphere, no visible way out. I was constantly searching for a hole, and sometimes I would find a little hole but be too afraid to dive through that bitch. Well I have found a rather large hole, and at this point have grabbed the sides of that sumabitch with my hands and have poked my head through. All thats left to do is jump.

Back to my origional idea though, is anyone in the industry that has any advice or words of wisdom/ideas for me that may help me out.

Thanks Again

#8

Congrats Vegita! As long as you keep starting and contribute to the “Nicest Rack / Ass Thread” I’m all for you making a change.

In all seriousness, congrats and I’m sure you are making the right move. Only you know what’s best for you. It’s good to see you have a plan and aren’t just “jumping” into it.

The only advice I would offer is plan and meet as many people as possible. This may sound a little strange, but networking, even for people NOT in sales is very big. Call people you may be interested in learning from, stop by Universities / Colleges and talk to people, anything to meet people and learn from them. It’s VERY helpful to need something and think back to a person you met months ago for their help / advice. AND, these people know others and are always willing to drop your name…IF they like you :wink: Hope this makes sense, but in my young career, I know many, many people that I could turn to for advice, help, jobs, etc…and it comes in very handy!!

Good luck to ya!

AA

#9

Hopefully others more knowledgable than I will help. But have you ever thought of physical therapy, which would allow you to go into sports medicine to work with athletes. This is a program offered at most large universities or specialized graduate schools in the medical field. You can try to see if Florida has a health science center which should have such a program, considered as Allied Health.

#10

[quote]Vegita wrote:

… Florida is perfect
[/quote]

Congratulations on making a move you think will make you happier. A word from someone who lives in paradise, the West Coast’s version-

“the grass is not always greener.” There is an off season, it’s called hurricane season/rainy season. The population is transitory, read snowbirds, read income varies dramatically. Living in a tourist area has it’s drawbacks.

Everyone is on vacation. They don’t understand you are there to do a job, get your mail, buy groceries, pump gas or just trying to get home. I would also advise you that people who bitch about $10 a year increase in insurance, bitch louder about how they are above the rest of the populace deserving special treatment when they are on vacation because they are (in their own minds) the economy of wherever it is they are vacationing. In other words they feel ALL locals should kiss their ass since we should all be soooo happy they choose to grace us with spending their dollars in our neighborhood.

I know not all of Florida is a tourist town and I don’t want to rain on your parade. I just wanted to let you know, nowhere is perfect and a specific ‘place’ isn’t necessarily the answer to all that will make you happy. Congratulations on deciding to go back to school. It’s on my five year plan too, now in year two of being implemented, guess that makes it a 3 year plan now.

#11

[quote]911 Girl wrote:
Vegita wrote:

… Florida is perfect

Congratulations on making a move you think will make you happier. A word from someone who lives in paradise, the West Coast’s version-

“the grass is not always greener.” There is an off season, it’s called hurricane season/rainy season. The population is transitory, read snowbirds, read income varies dramatically. Living in a tourist area has it’s drawbacks.

Everyone is on vacation. They don’t understand you are there to do a job, get your mail, buy groceries, pump gas or just trying to get home. I would also advise you that people who bitch about $10 a year increase in insurance, bitch louder about how they are above the rest of the populace deserving special treatment when they are on vacation because they are (in their own minds) the economy of wherever it is they are vacationing. In other words they feel ALL locals should kiss their ass since we should all be soooo happy they choose to grace us with spending their dollars in our neighborhood.

I know not all of Florida is a tourist town and I don’t want to rain on your parade. I just wanted to let you know, nowhere is perfect and a specific ‘place’ isn’t necessarily the answer to all that will make you happy. Congratulations on deciding to go back to school. It’s on my five year plan too, now in year two of being implemented, guess that makes it a 3 year plan now.
[/quote]

I live less than 20 minutes away from Florida. Hurricanes will take you out of golf for maybe 20-30 days a year, tops. Rain peaks in the spring/summer and is usually daily. No one cares. Yeah, it also rains everywhere in this country. Semi-arid northern New Mexico sees rain everyday during the summer.

If you don’t move to a tourist area you won’t see tourists. If you move to a tourist town you’ll see tourists. Same goes for college towns.
California Analogy - Tourists in Compton? Not happening. Tourists in Newport? Constant.

There aren’t a huge amount of snowbirds. It’s just pure math. You need a certain amount of money to maintain two homes and most people don’t.

Just stay away from North Havana/Miami and you should do fine.

#12

Just be careful about playing Too much Golf, I got a full scholarship to college where we played from 7 am to 8 pm Everyday, Taking a break from 9-12 for classes on SOME DAYS!!

I burned out in a year and now I cant stand golf, Also Muscle definately does not do the golfer good.

Good Luck

#13

I’m not in the industry, but a very good friend of mine is a PhD candidate in kinesiology up at UConn (same place Eric Cressey is doing his Master’s). Great program up there and a few of the professors (Kramer and Volek) are big names in the research field. Maybe you can PM Cressey or Mike Robertson (who I believe studied under Kramer when he was at another university).

Plus, I am currently a guinea pig in a study being done up at UConn by the guys in that exercise sciences department and they’ve handled everything in a first rate fashion (not sure how much that is worth for your purposes, but it impressed me).

Just a thought.

Kuz

  • Return with honor.
#14

Haha! Veg you are moving to my state? Dude, I’m picking up from my job here in Tallahassee in May and moving to Tampa… where the beer flows like wine. We should grab a game of golf when you make it down here bro! Take it easy on me you bastard, I’m a twenty handicap! (Don’t play enough)

Anyway, I’ll second the Physical Therapy thing. Hell, anything that involves health care (like my career in lab science), is going to be rewarding both in mind and wallet. Think to the next 10-20 years, man: the baby boomers are older and are going to need folks like you and me in the hospitals and clinics, etc. And Florida is where it’s at chief. No state income tax, the weather kicks ass 90% of the time, and the snowbird phenomenon isn’t really that bad. They just drive slow. I’m glad that they do.

#15

vegita,
i would like to present you the “most dangerously hardcore” award of the month. lasts months too, pussies.

#16

Good for you! Sounds like you’re ready for a big change. I did something similar about 5 years ago and have never regretted it.

One thing I found very helpful was reading a book about the Myers-Briggs personality type test. It helped me get a better feel for the types of things I would truly enjoy and be good at. It could help you hone in on what part of the field you would be most suited for. It was an easy read and an interesting experiment.

Best wishes!

#17

Just make sure the 'rents aren’t around when you’re deep in competition in the “Best Rack” thread.

#18

hmm… I kinda got over the fact that my parents know i’m a horndog a long time ago… this one day they were fighting, (years ago) and I was up in my room, well you know, applying generous amounts of lotion to my wanker all while appreciating the female body. So they start arguing over something I had done or said and just friggin bust in my room, arguing away, half yelling at me and half yelling at each other. I am sitting there pants around my ankles, furiously trying to close about 10 internet windows, and they are just standing in my room arguing… Finally I was like… do you guys mind giving me some privacy? And they were like, this is important pull your pants up. So… I pulled em up, wiped the extra lotion off my hands and started debating with them over thier argument.

Sheesh!

No my parents are actually pretty cool, I have even let my dad borrow some of my collection before. It was pretty wierd, But I think it was more weird for him than me.

Shit, ok see how easy it is to get my ass sidetracked onto sex and stuff.

Thanks for all the other responses, so it looks like PT might be the way to go. What is the extent of the schooling involved in that feild? is it a 4 year degree or more like a doctor so 6-8 years?

#19

[quote]Vegita wrote:
Thanks for all the other responses, so it looks like PT might be the way to go. What is the extent of the schooling involved in that feild? is it a 4 year degree or more like a doctor so 6-8 years?[/quote]

not sure about anyplace in FL, but here in NH the local old persons jail…er, home, was putting people through physical therapy school (I think its a 2 year associates degree?) for free if you agreed to work for them for a certain # of years.
More ball and chain I know, but could be worse. Physical therapy stuff would be nice though, there’s a big demand for working with old people, and you can then go learn ART also.

#20

Chewman- I am in the precise situation now that you were in recently. Good job, great benefits, considering a second career, and so far my parents and a close friend think I’m insane for even thinking of switching.

I’m thinking of chiro school. I’ll be shadowing a chiropractor to see what its like, and going to an open house at a school in a couple of weeks.