Filed under: General
This is my first post in exactly three months. And what have I been doing in that quarter of a year?
Let’s begin by revisiting my “plans for the rest of the summer” from the previous post. I wrote then that I intended to work 10 hours/week, continue my research on civil rights activity in the Alabama Black Belt, read for pleasure, and possibly help coach an American Legion baseball team.
Well, I’m proud to say that I, in fact, worked approximately 7 hours/week. I was supposed to complete 100 hours this summer, and with school beginning tomorrow, I have 30 left to go. I suppose that’s a C-minus. Aside from the research stops I made in Chapel Hill and Atlanta immediately following my previous post, I accomplished virtually nil on my research. That’s an F. I read like hell for pleasure, so I’ll give myself an A-plus there. And I did help coach an American Legion team, all 69 games worth. Another A-plus. If I were calculating my GPA (remember, school start’s tomorrow), I would have a 2.425.
But, as I’m reminding myself as I begin what could be my final year of school ever, grades are not what matters. This was perhaps my most productive and enjoyable summer in several years. I didn’t spend nearly as much time with Emily as I would have liked, but I made two separate trips to Virginia (neither of which was long enough), saw a few good movies, read a lot, recharged my batteries, and got three seasons of coaching experience in less than three months. And I got to come home at night and drink a beer every once in a while. As you may remember, that was a concern for me after three summers at Explo.
A little bit on the baseball: I got back to Alabama on May 25th. I went to my first practice on the 27th. On the 28th, I got in a 15-passenger van and rode 4 hours each way to play a doubleheader. And we were off. When it was all said and done, we had played 69 games in five states (Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Nebraska). That’s right, I can officially say that I’ve coached baseball in one-tenth of the states in the Union. Only I would get excited about that.
My payment for several hundred hours worth of work this summer was $240. That comes out to about 50 cents per hour, the way I figure. But I also got tons of free food (mostly hot dogs and the like, but if you know me, you know that’s a hell of a deal), as well as three trips. We spent a week in Omaha, Nebraska during the College World Series. We played in a 48-team tournament (and won it), and we also saw three CWS games, including the championship series between Oregon State and UNC. Seeing a game at Rosenblatt has always been a goal of mine, and I got to accomplish it all-expenses paid. We also played in a tournament just outside Nashville around the fourth of July, so I got to see one of the best fireworks displays in the country, again for free.
It wasn’t all fun, though. There were definitely times when I just didn’t want to go to the ballpark. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the game (more often than not, I felt a little bit lost on the days we didn’t have games or practices), but just that I was tired and needed a mental beach day.
In the end, though, it has definitely affirmed that I want very badly to be a baseball coach. It’s something that I’ve (or at least thought I’ve) wanted to do since I was about 16, but now I know for sure that it is. Not once since starting the season have I contemplated whether or not to stay in grad school and go for the Ph.D. That career path is not for me. (Interestingly enough, several of my “closest friends” in school have also come to the same conclusion and are preparing to take the LSAT. I always knew they’d realize the error of their ways.)
Anyway, that’s about all for now. If I write anymore, I’ll have to find a publisher (a real publisher). Maybe another day. Hope everyone is doing well!
