So I Guess That's It?

SO NOW’S A BIG REFLECTION AND LOOK BACK ON WHAT I’VE LEARNED THIS YEAR

As far as college goes, I still don’t have any top picks or first choices in my mind, sad I know.  I have managed to come up with a list of schools that I will be applying to however… I think.  I still have to read up on some a little more, actually a lot more, but that’s all part of the process.  Off the top of my head, I like Washington, Oregon, UCSB, UCLA, Santa Clara, UC Berkeley, USD, Gonzaga, USC, and Wyoming.  Though this year may have taught me a lot about picking schools and opened my eyes a little, I’m still a little bit of a lost cause you might say. So I might as well do as I’ve been doing so far and just wing it.

As far as work goes and what professions I am considering, that also remains a bit unknown.  There’s just so much to do and so little time to do it, and I know I realistically I can’t do it all so eventually I’ll have to narrow it down to something, but I don’t want that to be soon.  I want to have a lot of money and I want to have a lot of fun making money, but that seems hard.  I would love to be a pediatrician, and an architect, and an actuary, and a sports analyst, and much more, but sadly I can’t do it all. All I do is hope that when the time comes, and it sure is coming quick, I decide to do something I love and can see myself doing for a long time, even if I don’t have a single clue what it is now.

And lastly as far as life goes, it just goes…on…and on…and on.  I feel like I’m just going through the motions with everything I do now and I feel that something big has to change. Even after all the memories and experiences from this whole year, both good and bad, I don’t know if I’ve learned anything new.  I’m still stuck at the same place I was when the year began, and I don’t even know if I like it or not.  Now that this school year is pretty much over, I can say that it still left me pretty clueless about everything and what I intend to do or how I intend to do it, whatever it even is.  I go through life day after day not really expecting anything huge to happen or change, but thinking that something, even if it’s a small thing, should be different than it was the day before.  But hey I guess that’s my road block right there.  Maybe I just get so caught up with the little things in life that I lose sight of the big picture…. I don’t know.  I don’t know a lot of things.  But what I do know is that I’m just gonna keep movin’ on, no matter where life takes me (around the world if I’m lucky).  See ya guys (:

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a medical practitioner specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.  This is not to be confused with the position of a psychologist.  Though similar, the two are not the same. I personally would much rather be a psychiatrist, simply because I believe it will be more rewarding with the extra years needed. This is an idea that just recently became a possibility, but i know it requires much thought to consider. So here's what I've got for psychiatrists.

Psychiatrists begin their careers in medical school. After earning their MD, they go on to four years of residency training in mental health, typically at a hospital's psychiatric department. Some clients see a psychiatrist exclusively, for both medication and therapy. Others visit a psychiatrists solely for medications, and use other treatment team members for counseling. A common misconception about psychiatrists is that they only treat people with severe mental illness, like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, diseases for which medication is the mainstay of treatment, leaving psychotherapy to psychologists and patients with less severe problems. Some psychiatric practitioners specialize in helping certain age groups. There are plenty of good colleges for this field. All around the country colleges offer both psychology and psychiatrists like UC Davis and UCSD and Yale. The average annual salary of a psychiatrist is 195,800.

Now this is just a brief summary but unfortunately it is getting late and time is running up and it's spring break.  Again I said this just became a possibility so I don't know too much yet.

Fighting Fire

This time on my blog cycle, I will bring up the profession of becoming a firefighter. This is definitely not the first choice of career that I plan on pursuing, but I know this is something that I can do and can succeed at. I love helping others and am willing to risk my life for them. And this profession doesn't exactly require much education rather than physical training, which isn't exactly my style of job selection, but sometimes you just have to do what feels right.

Being a firefighter is not easy and neither is the process of becoming a firefighter. Competition is fierce and the hiring process can be very grueling and challenging, something many people do not endure or succeed at. More than 70% give up the pursuit of becoming a firefighter and move on to other career choices. There are likely many reasons for this statistic. Perhaps they did not know what they were getting into when they began the process, or they did not adequately prepare themselves.

The great majority of departments are requiring an EMT certification to apply and more than 90% will require this certification after hire. Since most fire departments run upwards of 70% or more emergency medical related responses, it only makes sense for them to require this as a prerequisite; additionally, it is much less training they have to provide you during the recruit academy. Many departments are looking for licensed paramedics; however, before you can usually apply to paramedic school, you must first successfully pass EMT training. Work experience as an EMT on a 9-1-1 ambulance is also extremely beneficial, and often required for many paramedic programs.

I've always admired firefighters and thought of them as great role models and modern day heroes. They risk there lives everyday for complete strangers and work grueling hours in order to protect and serve the communiy. Though becoming a firefighter is quite difficult and doesn't result in the pay that I would much rather hope to have, I believe it would be a fun and rewarding career and will definitely consider it for my future.

Sports Analyst

Alright well seeing as I'm a little pressed for time on this blog cycle because I would love to go to bed early (even though we all know that won’t happen), I apologize in advance if this post seems a bit inadequate and lacks creativity.

But anyways, this time on my blog I will be discussing the possibility of being a sports analyst for a broadcasting station.  Now ideally I don’t want to be that guy that just has like 2 minutes of wrap up sports stories from the channel 2 news at 7 pm.  I think working for espn is pretty much the best I could think of doing, or maybe I could join Bob Costas for the Summer and Winter Olympics on NBC.  That would be chill too.  This is a career that I can honestly say I have not put much thought into thus far and wouldn’t put super high on the top of my list but it is still definitely something to consider.  I love sports.  They are truly my passion.  I’ve grown up playing them, watching them, learning them, and even hearing them on the radio.  They are a part of me that I will never let go of and for this reason I would love to be a sports analyst talking about the hub around the nation (or world).

Now to become a sports analyst, there are specific classes needed to be taken in college.  A sports analyst differs from a sports reporter in that they break down intricate details of the sport they cover to offer detailed insights and, in some cases, opinions. Sports analyst education tends to begin at the bachelor's degree level, with a major or minor in journalism or communications. Master's degree programs are also available in these fields.  So look to be taking classes of this sort if considering this position. Great schools to consider are Kaplan University, Ashford University, and University of Phoenix.

Again sorry this might have been a bad post, but thank you for reading it anyway.  Bye (:

Actuary

Okay so this time on my blog I will be exploring the career choice of becoming an actuary.  Now for those of you that may not know, an actuary is a person who compiles and analyzes statistics and patterns and uses them to calculate insurance risks and premiums.  This is something that was just introduced to me not to long ago actually.  My dad gave me the idea one day while we were watching tv and started explaining to me the kind of work and reward it would be.  At that point, I didn’t think much of it, but now that I read into things, it seems that it could be something that I like and could be good at.

I am really good at strategizing and calculating in my head what I must do first or to do something next or what would give me the best opportunity to put me in a good situation.  Ask my friends, I’m great at projecting what I got on a test or assignment in a class and how it will impact my grade and change what I must do on the next assignment to compensate for what I would like to achieve.  I can get things down to the exact percent.  Also, one exercise I already do a lot to prepare myself for these actuary-type situations is play Bloons Tower Defense 4 on my iphone (That game is the shit).  This actually really does help because it teaches me how to manage certain projects and figure out a plan that will prove to be most successful both at that moment and in the long run.  You should see me, I go hard.  You ain’t never seen a better bloonsman than me.  I stay poppin’ them and making bank.

Now as far as the education goes to become an actuary, there are a lot of necessary courses that would be of great benefit to you while you’re in school.  These classes include finance, microeconomics, macroeconomics, marketing, computer science classes, calculus, statistics, communications, and much more.  These classes mainly center around a computer science degree and a business degree.  It is vital to take as many helpful classes as possible though because it could very much increase your pay and increase your chances of being hired.

One thing that really stood out to me though was definitely the starting average salary of most actuaries right out of college and the salary progression over time.  It turns out that most actuaries start of making around $50,000.  According to the Payscale.com report, the median expected hourly wage for actuaries with between one and four years of work experience falls between $50,797 and $69,828. That salary range increases to $73,103 through $103,826 for actuaries with between five and nine years of work experience. Those who have been on the job for between 10 and 19 years can expect to bring home between $92,748 and $140,528.  These are the kind of numbers that I don’t mind seeing on a paycheck!

Anyways I fell that being a professional actuary would be a very interesting and fun job that I could definitely spend my time doing. Also, download BTD4 to your phones now cuz that game is legit.

Architect

Side Note:

First of all, I hope that this entry seems a bit more organized than the previous ones.  Don’t count on anything but I mean I’ll try.  If there’s something that anyone’s unhappy with, just leave a comment addressing your opinion and possible improvements, or anything else for that matter.  Due note that I read all comments.  And due note that I probably won’t change a single thing that you propose.  That’s just the way I am.  Alright thank you!

Overview:

So this time on my blog, I will be talking about becoming an architect.  This has been one of those options that I always leave in the back of my head, kind of like a back-up plan.  I find being an architect would be very interesting and would never get boring.  There are so many different ways to design a building or house or anything for all I care that I feel you will always keep yourself guessing.  This would bring out the artistic side of me and test my creativity.  Also, this job may involve traveling, which is something I do not mind at all.  Real quick, for those of you that don’t know (most likely none of you), an architect is someone who designs things and often supervises their construction.  The type of architecture that I am interested in is a building designer, also a home designer (there are a bunch of different positions in architecture).

What Professional Building Designers Do:

Professional Building Designers, or Home Designers, specialize in designing single family homes. In some cases, they may also design other light frame residential buildings, agricultural buildings, and decorative facades for larger buildings.  Unlike architects, Home Designers are not legally required to pass examinations or receive special licenses to design. However, a designer who carries the title "Certified Professional Building Designer" or "CPBD" has completed training courses, passed a rigorous certification exam, and practiced building design for at least six years.  Typically, they begin by creating working drawings, which are later turned into actual construction plans, or “blueprints”.  However, CPBDs follow a strict code of professional ethics and discipline, as governed by the American Institute of Building Design.  So the only real bummer so far is that I cannot do ANYTHING I want… technically.

What to Study in School:

There are no specific education requirements for building designers.  Many building designers train as architects but have not completed the licensing requirements.  So they generally don’t work as hard, nice!  Although, developing building designers take classes in architecture or structural engineering to study construction, architectural design, and even analytical problem solving. These courses are usually completed at vocational schools, community colleges, or other schools of architecture.  Some schools to keep in mind that are known to have good programs for this profession are Michigan University, Arizona State University, Northcentral University, and ITT Technical Institute.

How Much They Make:

Money is of course something to be aware of.  I mean it’s great if you love what you do for a living, but you need some sort of financial stability. Anyways, I was at my desk crunching some numbers, and apparently, according to a study done by Salary Expert, the median salary of a professional building designer is just shy of $70,000.  However, this number may rise or lower depending on how well business is booming… or if it isn’t, cuz maybe you’ll get a bonus, maybe you won’t.  Nobody knows.  Architects on the other hand, the guys with more pre-requisites, make just under $80,000, so maybe that might be better for me.  I would have to pay more in school however to take the best classes and pass the exams.

Final Thoughts:

I think being an architect could be really cool! (:

Pediatrician

Alright so this time I am going to focus on the profession of being a Pediatrician.  This has actually been an option that I have been considering for a very long time.  The idea of being around kids a lot and helping them out sounds really fun to me because I love playing around with them and working with them… but of course I’d be in it for the money as well.  Duh.  These guys make bank!  The average starting salary of a pediatrician out of residency is $135,000, but overall salary averages out to just over $175,000.  However if you want to get technical about it and go into the specific high-paying positions of pediatrician specialists like neurologists or surgeons, they can make sometimes $450,000 a year.  Of course in order to make all this money in the first place I would have to go through medical school for way more than the average four years and eventually probably pay off some super bogus outrageous bank loans.  But it’s whatever.  Kids are cool and I think I could have a blast.

Now being a pediatrician would require A LOT of work, something I’m not too fond of…  BUT, after everything’s said and done and all the hard stuff is over with, the fun begins.  As a pediatrician, I would perform all the necessary procedures that a normal doctor would too, just the same way they would, only with children, mostly children (technically they are allowed to be the doctor of anyone under the age of 21, but I don’t wanna deal with some old dude, it’d be weird).  “Pediatricians diagnose and treat infections, injuries, and many types of organic disease and dysfunctions. They work to reduce infant and child mortality, foster healthy lifestyles, and ease the day-to-day challenges of those with chronic problems,” according to About.com (don’t know if I cite or not?)  Now doesn’t that sound nice!  I’d be like a super hero and everyone would love me!

Anyways, that’s all I really have time for right now.  Sorry if it’s shitty, it probably is.  I’ll try to make a better post next time, when I talk about some other serious job I like, or maybe it won’t be serious, who knows.