Hello hello, again.
The last few weeks have been really exciting for me for a plethora of reasons. They all have to do with lifestyle changes I am making from finding my niche in my career to going back to school to getting back in shape. I will write about this over several entries to keep it from being too lengthy.
I finished off what I hope is my last few weeks in retail for the rest of my life. I have been shadowing someone in the Finance department for about 2 weeks now and absolutely love the work that I am doing! I NEVER thought that I would say that about Finance as long as I lived but, I pushed my personal limits and discovered a new interest that I think I could make into a career.
For the new job, I am learning to write SQL. SQL is a special computer code that retrieves any amount of data that a company has stored on its massive servers. It is surprisingly pulling on my language heartstrings because I am finding I get excited when I have to start writing my own SQL queries and I am making all sorts of comparisons between SQL/Languages as I am learning it. My AD even remarked at how surprised she is that I am picking it up so quickly with no formal experience/teaching.
July 1 I will be starting 2, 8 week courses for leadership management and finance. One is through Notre Dame and the other, Villanova. I just received my books in the mail and I am really excited to begin formal learning again. In addition to that, I have been doing a large amount of informal learning on my own. Over the last few months I have bought numerous books/audio books/audio conferences and am tearing through them faster than I have ever read before in my life. This “new found” hobby has come about slowly over the last year or so. It started when I read a book about the effects of TV on kids last fall. As I was reading it, I made many comparisons to the effects I saw it had on me. I slowly found myself turning my TV on less and less, until I outright canceled my cable subscription because I had not turned my TV on for 3 months. I then found myself getting ansty, bored and somewhat lonely at home.. until I rediscovered to magic of a great book! I have not been able to put them down since. I have been reading all sorts of history books and auto/biographies. My favorite story to recount is about WW1 and how Rasputin died. Ask me sometime, it’s an unbelievable story!
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against watching TV, I simply found that it was a time drain for me and I wasted SO SO SO much time doing nothing productive. Now, I am using the money I am saving on my TV bill to buy books and help pay off my student loans more quickly. While I might be somewhat lacking in my pop-culture knowledge, I am gaining far more knowledge in other areas and am perfectly content with that balance.
On another note, P, several of his colleagues, their families and myself will be going up to northern WI to go camping for about week over July 4th. I am excited and cannot wait to go! We will be on private property with a river running through the back end on half open/half forested land and the nearest town 45 minutes away. Believe it or not, there is ZERO cell coverage up there! It will be a nice escape from work for everyone. We are planning on grilling out, tubing, kayaking, touring a cheese factory, visiting Lake Superior and a myriad of other WI/outdoor adventures! P and I are leaving first thing Saturday morning while everyone else is starting the drive immediately after work on Friday.
Until next time!
