From October 28, 2009. This was the post I left on his site before deciding to branch out on my own.
This reminds me of a bit George Carlin did, where he talked about Mike Douglas having a guest host on his show. Either you’re a guest or the host…
Anyhow, I guess Sean is holding you all hostage while helping his friends at the same time. He has this uncanny knack for knowing what’s best for me without my really knowing it. There are two people who have this skill, and I married the other one.
My wife and I started down many new paths this summer. It’s been four months since we got married, three months since we moved to Alabama, and 2 1/2 months since she started her job and I started looking for a new one. One of my favorite sayings is ‘get out of the box,’ meaning to break out of old habits/ruts and find new, creative ways of learning or doing things. I always say I like it in my little box. It’s cozy, all my stuff is in here, and there’s always a rerun of Bull Durham on the TV.
But these life changes pretty much forced me out of the box. For 7 1/2 years, I had a stable job with decent pay, doing a lot of what I wanted to do at a radio station in Kansas. Now I’m starting over in Tuscaloosa, which is nice in a way, since it lets me reinvent the wheel and go in a completely different path if I want to. I’ve done the exercises in Bolles’ “What Color is your Parachute” job-hunting book, and I’ve learned a lot about who I am and the things I like to do. I’m using this information to plan my next job. The challenge here is how to best use the information. Job ideas pretty much run the gamut, and many of them I’d never dreamed of or considered. Like teaching. The people I consider my inner circle all think I’d be a great teacher. I’d never imagined myself doing that. Going back to school? I’m a broadcaster, I don’t need any more schooling… But since I’m outside the box, nothing is off limits.
I’ve even accepted a part-time job running the control board at the sports talk station here in town. Basically doing the same thing I did in Lubbock in 1995 when I first started– Texas Rangers baseball, Houston Rockets basketball, Dallas Cowboys football, etc. Entry-level stuff. But it’s a foot in the door, it’s a start. I did good work in Kansas, and two people I worked for have kindly lent their names as references. But nobody in Alabama knows them, so we have to get back in on the ground floor. You never know where these things will take you.
Wife Ann and I are pretty much settled, and we’re getting used to life in the South. Still much swirling around us. Many questions for her and for me. Maybe when we get these things figured out, we can relax. But then there’ll be other stuff to figure out… and then, well… who knows?
There will always be something to learn/do/figure out. There is no destination. Only a journey. We continue to grow, to learn, to get a little better every day. And we do the best we can.
