To do: Become the Missouri State Cross-Country Llama Racing Champion

Goals are an interesting concept. I set them for myself without following through about 50% of the time. For the next week, it'll be something like: "I'm totally gonna sit down and practice for half an hour twice a day, on each instrument." And it just falls by the wayside because my schedule ends up filling up with last minute homework, or gaming, or anything else to decompress from school. I could blame it on a lot of things, but it comes down to the fact that I'm always too distracted by something shiny to keep up with what needs to be done.

So, I figure looking ahead to see where I want to be in a few years and what I'll need to do to get there might motivate me to start working.

Where do I see myself in three years? I'll be 27, almost 28 and I better be a god damned band director and out of school. I've discovered that I want to teach, but I've only made this discovery in my sixth year of college.  This means my degree is pretty much worthless on its own when I graduate. I've taken the exams I need to: CBEST, CSET for Earth and Planetary Science, but I still need a credential to get a job. Preferably a Master's degree in Music or Education on top of that, hence the three year deadline. I want to work with instrumental music over choral, and that means I need to take all the methods classes that weren't offered at UC Davis, as well as music pedagogy courses. This will leave me a bit behind on the credential track, but better to come in prepared than try and take all the courses at once.

Where do I see myself in a year? I plan to enroll as a full time graduate student at CSUS in the spring of next year, spending the fall semester catching up with undergraduate coursework. A year from now, I hope to have wrapped up my prep work for student teaching, leaving my third semester free to do just that, as well as find a way to weasel into a masters program in conducting. 

Three months from now, I'll be living it up in Sacramento. I need to find an apartment to split with my little brother. I'll also be needing a job. A new job, that part is what scares me, I'll probably be putting my college degree and class B license to use in a coffee shop somewhere in East Sac, as I refuse to work nights, and will need my afternoons free for courses.

6 weeks from now, I'll be a college graduate. That is, if I can make up for the terrible job I did on my midterm this morning. I need to take the rest of this quarter more seriously, as it's the last chance I have to finish my coursework before the university kicks me out for being over units. 6 weeks from now I better be hitting the high G on my trumpet... C, G, C, E, G. I want to be able to play the Cortez solo for my students before I leave, as well as be able to do the Bugle calls at the summer camp I teach rock climbing at. Oh yeah. Hm. also need to be climbing 5.10Bs in the gym again at least. The rock walls at Mt. Diablo owned me in a way that is just not acceptable.  Especially after watching some dude free climb it in front of us.

What do I need to do to get there, to any of these stages? I need to work my ass off.

-I need to take my classes more seriously, and get the hell out of here.

-I'm going to need lessons to master voice, trumpet, trombone, pick up my sax again, also      keyboard chord progressions to build up a base to work in some Jazz piano.

-I need to make it Pipeworks weekly, at minimum.

-I need to practice, at least one instrument each day.

-I need to listen to more music, build recognition of Jazz repertoire. 

I'm starting to see a trend here. My greatest weakness as a music teacher will end up being my lack of experience playing Jazz, and every high school has a jazz band. I'll need to be able to lead one. Best get to work.