#mlpurpose

I went straight from undergrad into grad school without any break. I kept summer employment at my undergrad the summer after a graduated (that included housing) so when it came to going to grad school I moved straight from my college summer apartment to my grad school apartment. Most of the others in my Masters' cohort were fresh out of undergrad too.

For me, grad school was a secure next step (that also gave me two years until I had to start paying back my college loans). I also knew staying in a “student” headspace would likely help my academic performance as opposed to taking time off. One semester bled into the next. I was already used to 1x week classes since a big chunk of my communications classes were 1x week. What I was not used to was APA style writing and bibliographies, this was not part of my broadcast journalism curriculum. I pushed through my 42 credit masters in 4 semesters and when it came time for graduation in May 2007 I was DONE.

I also knew to continue on to a Ph.D. wasn’t going to be in the cards for me, for a whole host of reasons, particularly my concern about how long higher education as we know it will continue to exist. I had my sights set on getting to the “Director” level and seeing how that went. I’m closing out year 3 as a Director and at age almost 36 I know I don’t want to spend the next 30 years here. I also know higher education is not adapting quickly enough especially for Millenials like me that thrive off of flexibility. For the past 6 months or so as I forecast the end of my full-time higher education career I’ve spent a lot of think thinking about what’s next and what I can do now to help me get there. Taking “free” classes at a university where I’ve been employed has always been on the table, but I never took advantage of it.

Last year a colleague mentioned finished a certificate and it got me wondering what certificate programs the university I worked at offered. Pretty quickly I found the Nutrition Education certificate through the Health Studies department in the College of Arts and Sciences. Coincidently this is also the department that I adjunct teach Urban Hiking through. I applied back in November, but it was too late for Spring admission. I knew there was a lot of red tape regarding tuition remission so I was pleased that my department chair reached out to talk through my interest in the program. The plan is to start with taking a Nutrition course and a Behavior Changes for Health Promotion course in the fall then a Sports Nutrition class in the spring. It sounds right up my alley.

I know I have a lot on my plate as it so, so making time for classes 2 nights a week in the fall plus homework is going to be a test. Fall thankfully in my quieter season so I’m hopeful. I think Summer is too busy for me to spread a class over Fall, Spring, Summer for the next two years. There are also financial implications. My tuition is “waived,” but I would need to pay taxes on the class for anything over 3 credits, which would be the tune of $5,250 for each additional class each calendar year. The certificate is 18 credits total. However, my department chair mentioned that if I was enjoying the certificate program I could add 12 more credits to round out an MS in Health Promotion Management. I’m not so sure about that, but it’s good to know I have options.

Taught a FULL #BodyPump class today! Filmed it so I can make adjustments before my official filming for my certification on Sunday!

Today was my 2nd group coaching call with Dan Mason and the 6 others in my group. We were working on developing our purpose statements today. Dan quoted his mentor Mastin Kipp saying “Purpose is an emotion to cultivate within yourself and then give to others through your service.”

So Dan led us through a guided meditation for about 15 minutes to think back on our earliest memories of being happy. He challenged us to think as far back as we could remember and insert ourselves back into the memory and take stock of it. 

For me the earliest memory that came flooding back was playing “Diner” at my Grandma’s house (my Dad’s mom) beginning around age 5 or 6. My sister and I had alter egos who owned the Diner - Lisa (me) and Lara (my sister), the 3rd “owner” was my Aunt’s God daughter that was basically a cousin who lived in NJ named Tara. So the Diner was Lisa, Lara,and Tara’s (gotta love a rhythm and rhyme) also known as LLTs. It was a late 1980s era Fisher Price kitchen we got for Christmas, but my aunt MJ (who lived with my Grandma) took thigs to the next level by buying us Lisa, Lara & Tara personalized pencils and notepads and made us Diner menus at work. It was all very legit. My sister and I (since Tara only visited a few times a year) generally swapped between waitress and cook serving our patrons generally my Dad, Grandma and Aunt or any other family member that was around on a Sunday evening which is generally when we went to my Grandma's house. My Grandma lived in a 2 family house that her brother and his wife lived in the upstairs half. This was the house both families basically raised their children in and I grew up only 10 minutes away in the same town my Dad grew up in. Dan then asked us to take stock of the feeling we were feeling in this memory. For me it was: imagination, creativity, love, service, connection, relationships, family, accomplishment. Then he asked us what we believed about ourself as a result of this memory and emotions. 

Dan then asked us to think of our next happy memory. Again I was at my Grandma’s house with my sister, but we upstairs at our great aunt and uncle’s house with some of our cousins playing “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” This was a game we played often between ages maybe 6-10. We took turns making up a short skit with the goal to make the audience (the rest of us kids not performing) laugh as much as possible. Whoever made the audience laugh the hardest won. The feelings I felt were: imagination, performance, creativity, laughter, humor, connection. 

Then Dan asked again for another early happy memory. This one I was again with my sister and my Aunt MJ and her friend on one of our annual trips into NYC to spend the day getting lunch, sightseeing and going to a performance of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. We did this for many years likely between when I was 7-12. The emotions were: special, loved, important, in awestruck, excitement.

Finally Dan asked us for a recent happy memory. Mine was a girls boating and camping trip weekend in mid-May. A bunch of girls some I was close with and some I was getting to know, spending hours out boating on a beautiful lake weekend and camping at night, where I was one of the more experienced campers. We spent hours sharing stories and laughing. I felt: loved, relaxed, freed, connected, helpful, carefree, laughter.

I teared up quite a few times during this exercise. Dan then had us take stock of all the emotions we wrote and boil them down to our top two that make us happy to help us form our purpose statement. 

Mine are: Creativity & Connection. 

I likely could have come to these two top emotions without having done this memory mediation, but now that I can so strongly associate these feelings with important memories makes me even more fired up about living my purpose.

I did a thing! I’ve been toying for a while with making a health & fitness Instagram and finally did it last night! I am 100% not leaving my Tumblr community, but I’ve been a spectator in the health & fitness world of Instagram for a long time and I want to join in while keeping it separate from my personal account. I feel like this Tumblr is a mix of ALL of me, but I plan for my Measuring Life Instagram to be more focused on health & fitness. 

I’ll be doing a mix of retrospective posts from the last E I G H T years of blogging and well as current content - most of which I’ll post here too. So feel free to follow me on Instagram too or not, but wanted to share. 

This is my 3000th post! 

That’s crazy. I started this wild ride on January 3, 2010 and have been writing about “measuring life” ever since. That averages to 353 posts a year (I’ve certainly had years with counts higher and lower than that, but it tracks). I don’t really post on the weeks much, but I try to write a few times a week and generally more than 1 post a day when I do post. 

In these almost 8.5 years I have NOT MISSED A MONTH of writing - that’s amazing, but I do admit I had some lean months here and there, but I always kept coming back. 

We close my 12 step program meeting by saying “Keep coming back, it works if you work it and work it 'cause you're worth it.” I think that applies here too. 

The more I give of myself in this space the more I get back. Thanks for being a part of this journey whether you’ve been here for nearly 3,000 posts or just 3.