One Year Down 55 to go

My people,

Today marks the one year anniversary of my marriage to the most beautiful and talented woman in all the land. Fellas, I am so sorry for you that I found her first, but don't be sore losers, I am sure there is some girl out there that can hold a candle to my gal...maybe. Anyway, I wanted to go through some highlights of my first year.

-Learning to live with a woman. I'll tell ya, living with a woman in the right context has been a very interesting experience. Don't get me wrong, Marmar is an amazing women but living with her has not always been raisins and gumdrops. But that has been the beauty of it all. It is in the daily battles where my wife and I have grown closer to each other. It has been those hard conversations where we really see the value of communication. Its swallowing your pride when you know the other person has been hurt by your actions. Its not always easy, but its always an opportunity to grown closer or further apart.

-Learning about cooking and cleaning. I grew up with mother who made my bed, did my laundry, and spoiled me rotten. I have sadly failed to realize until recently those skills took years to master, and that my current wife is not my mother :)

Marketing?

So I am interested these days in a career in Marketing. The sad fact of the matter is I have no idea what that really entails. Any thoughts on what I should do next?

For those interested in Aptitude testing

Good Morrow,

This past week I went to see a friend in Chicago and to get tested for different aptitudes. I must say that it was quite an experience and one that I think I would to do again. I wrote this little piece to give you all a personal account of my experiences.

But first, let me explain why I wanted to go in the first place. You see, I teach high school in a rural Indiana school district. I have been teaching for about two years and I can't see myself going a day more than I have too. I had no idea what to do next. I had gotten some career testing done while I was in high school, but I always felt those tests did not tell me whether I would be good in my interested fields. Those test only help narrow what I was interested in, while aptitude testing looks at your natural, God given abilities and aligns those abilities with your interests. So what is aptitude testing...

So basically, many years ago General Electric began testing employee finger dexterity to see how they would do on the assembly line and found that a connection between there performance on those tests and how they enjoyed working on the assembly line. Since the 30s the amount of aptitude tests available has increased quite dramatically. I spent about 8 hours one day going through a variety of tests which by most people would say has nothing to do with any related to anything. If you want more credible information on aptitude testing you can go to the following link.

http://www.jocrf.org/ This is the organization I got my testing through. It was a little pricey (600.00 bones) but I now believe I have some direction to what I want to do with my life.

At the end of the test I filled out a list of interested career options I was thinking about so they could match my interests with my naturally inclined superpowers. I ended up recording the hour and half conversation because I knew I would forget most of it. In the end, they said I should pursue something based on my interest and not because of practicality. I have always been interested in the marketing side of business operations and they told me that would great thing to pursue. I starting writing this blog because of their suggestions that it would help me to organize my ideas better and to work on idea flow.

If you are at some type of crossroads with your career, or you do not really know what to do. I would highly recommend going to Johnson O'Connor and get your aptitudes tested. But remember to take what they give you with a grain of salt. In the end, you are responsible for your own decisions, with what you do with your time between waking and sleeping. I think we would be happier if more of us knew what that was.