My Backwards Little Life

As I was following people back the other day on twitter, I saw one name that stuck out. That name was @NoMeatBalls. Instantly it made me think of how did she came up with that name. Well luckily I saw a tweet with a link to her blog telling about how she came up with that name. And yes, of course it really had to do with meatballs. If you want to see how she came up with @NoMeatBalls, click the link below.

http://commpassion.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/whats-in-a-twitter-name/

So, that led me to this sequence of letters and spaces that make up this post. Over the past year, I've been fielding a question of my own. Why are you back in college and you're only about to be a junior? Well I really can't tell you how many times I've answered this question. Sometimes I really don't care to explain and blow it off. So here goes...

At the young age of 19, I decided that I wanted to have a career in real estate. I took the class, took the test, and went about my way. Shortly in to interview process, no one took this bright eyed kid serious. I was a little tattered after the process and decided to go back to school. I took a few months to figure out what I wanted to study and went from there. Well after a few semesters back and not being focused, feeling burnt out, and losing a small fortune in the Healthsouth fiasco, I knew I did not want to stay on the track I was on.

By this time I was about 22 and said three years was far away from 19 and so I went back to real estate. At this time, I had just about every major real estate company in Birmingham wanting to talk to me. I was pumped and excited and ready to get rolling! So I took a residential job hoping for the opportunity to break into development at some point. Well that opportunity came about two years into the process and I thought I was riding high! An internship turned in to a full-time paid position with an up and coming development firm. Score, right?

Well...so much for riding high, that job turned in to a very tough learning experience. So losing the desire to wake up and go do real estate everyday, that 27 year old was out of shape and feeling like he was 40...no really, 40. I needed to go back to school and get the degree I wanted. I knew I wanted an Economics degree and graduate degree of Sports Management. During this time, I changed jobs to the current job I am at now with Art Promotional/Magnetsfast. I started taking classes at a junior college to get back in the routine of school once again. At the Jr. college, I never really had to field the questions of why I was back in school at age 27. I guess that's because their were a lot of people my age and older roaming the halls. It kind of felt more like a retirement home/rehab unit to be completely honest.

The questions really started coming when I transferred to Alabama in early 2009. There I was, a 28 year old feeling like I was start a come back in the major leagues and sitting in classes with 19 to 21 year olds. At first I really didn't talk much to people around me. I felt like I was in the special forces, get in and get out. I think I felt that way since I wasn't on campus much didn't think I needed to talk much. But that changed because I'm pretty social and it's what college is all about. Once people started figuring stuff out, so did the questions. I'll say it did get tiring but it made me feel a lot more comfortable about the whole deal.

So the last few years I feel like I'm living a backwards life. I'm suppose to be settling down right now, right? But instead it's more like starting over/fresh. I went from working 24/7 to a working/college kid trying to balance it all out. I might be 29 right now but I really feel 24 or 25. I'm in the best shape I've ever been in and I feel like I'm where I'm suppose to be. Who knows what will happen, but I sure have learned a lot in this backwards life of mine....so far.