The future (as of right now)

First a quick congratulations - the UC women's varsity 4 won second place at ACRA nationals this past weekend in Oak Ridge, Tenn. That's a pretty impressive feat. The pair also competed but didn't make it to grand finals. The novice didn't go. Not my choice, it was Figg's. To no one's surprise, University of Michigan won the varsity 8. But to most people's surprise, UC Davis was second and only eight seconds back. I always had a liking for them since my sister went there. Grand Valley State finished third and Purdue failed to make to make it to the medal podium.

So...

I'm looking for other coaching positions right now. I'm not sure if I'm doing it for my future or if I'm just having fun seeing who would take me. As of right now I've applied to jobs at UC San Diego, Sonoma State, University of Vermont, Endicott College and a boat repair company in Philadelphia. I don't have too many credentials other than a year's coaching experience, so I think my chances are slim. Still, I think it's worth a shot.

I technically could stay with UC next year and live a little easier.

My dilemma is this - financially and security are right here in Cincinnati. I love my apartment and my parents live here. But it may be a better move for a hopeful career in coaching to take the first opportunity that opens in another city.

I also contacted Cincinnati Rowing Club over the weekend to see about a membership to use their facilities. That may be a welcoming change. Sometimes we all need to get back to the basics of why we like something to revaluate what's really important.

Quick side note - Done with school in less than two weeks.

Oh, Jobs.

So here's the thing - in three weeks I'm going to be graduating from the University of Cincinnati. My major, Journalism, is the third biggest major in college of arts and sciences. There are more than 200 students. That said, my assumption would have been that most of the students are not getting jobs in a journalism related field when they graduate. But, as I've found, many of them are.
"I am hoping to get a job in editorial photography," said student Francesca Nixon. "So yes, I plan to stay in the journalism field."
Someone else from the e-mail address woodruaj wrote "I plan on working for a newspaper and free lancing for magazines," they said. "But if I find myself not being able to pay the bills my fall back is event planning. Go figure."
Some students have even more ambitious goals.
"After college I plan to either become a columnist for a magazine or start my own," said student Courtney Myrick. I can't imagine either one of those are easy tasks.
What I'm getting out of this is that people don't even have specific plans in mind, they just know they want to get into a certain field. With something like journalism, which seems to have lots of people and not many jobs, I wonder if it's a good decision.
I won't say that it's the main reason I want to do coaching instead, but it certainly plays a part. With coaching I've seen dozens of job openings all across the country and I know for a fact there aren't 200 prospective rowing coaches coming from any one university.
Another option some people told me about was grad school.
"Following graduation I am going to take a masters degree program in screenwriting and film direction," said journalism student Jathan Fink. "My plan I'd actually to work in feature films and television."
Student Tiffany George has similar ambitions to me.
"I'm going to grad school to get my master's in education so that I can hopefully teach high school English/communications/journalism, be the adviser to the yearbook or paper, and coach soccer," she said.
Similarly, student Desire Bennett said she's going to try to go to law school.
"I plan on applying to law school after I get my journalism degree and if I'm lucky and able to, I'll maybe do some freelancing while I'm in law school," she said. "Ultimately though, I believe I'll be doing something in the field of Law/Advocacy or something like that."

And there it is. People know they are doing one of two things; more school in order to get into another field or working as a journalist. I just never felt it was that cut and dry. I'm surprised there are not more people like me who are going with a passion they have outside of school.

I've thought about this a lot the past year and coaching instead of going into journalism just seems like the right fit for me. I love rowing. I don't necessarily love writing on deadline. We'll see though. Maybe 10 years down the road I'm going to be a coach for a school and writing freelance during the summers. That wouldn't be so bad, I guess.

Quotes were from a question I posed on the journalism list serve for the University of Cincinnati

P.S.
There ended up being one response that actually made sense to me after I already wrote the story -

Chris Reid wrote:

"As of right now, my focus is strictly to get the degree. My minor is in more of a technical field. Its really unclear where I will end up," he said. "I'm not limiting my options. There are plenty of English/Journalism/Communication jobs out there that require a bachelor's in one of those areas. A typical "journalism" job seems unrealistic."

There we go.

Body types

I never quite understood the reason for the difference between male and female rower physiques. In my five years of being around the sport I've noticed this:
men tend to be lean, sometimes muscular and undoubtedly more athletic than the average couch potato. It makes sense given the strength and endurance components of the sport that they would be.
Women involved in the sport, however, range from athletic to fat. I've seen whole boats of scholarship women who looked like they could beat me in a pie-eating contest. My coach once pointed out to me that the varsity 8 I rowed in my sophomore year was lighter than the top women's varsity 8 that same year. That's pretty remarkable. So how is this possible?
"I've always wondered that too. I guess we, as females, think that since we practice daily for 2 hours, it gives us the right to consume anything. I guess not," said Meredith Murphy, a rower from Great Bridge high school.
Brooks Dame of Episcopal high school says "I think since you work so hard at practice you're starving so you go home and eat. Guys in general have a higher metabolism so they're OK. Females don't."
Metabolism may be an issue. I just don't understand how female rowers can be more overweight than someone who isn't involved athletically. In every other endurance sport I've ever watched, the female participants were really fit. There have been so many instances in rowing where they just aren't.
Shane Lewis of Dowling University writes "I would like to propose a rule that certain girls that are overweight cant wear spandex in public like certain girls that aren't overweight."
I think what he's saying is that they should be more self conscious. I can't say I completely disagree.

Quotes were taken from my discussion topic on a Facebook.com rowing forum

Another weekend in Philly/South Jersey

This weekend was a whole lot of rowing. Dad Vail on Friday and Saturday in Philadelphia and the ECAC right across the river on Sunday. The novice guys did pretty horrifically. Varsity women did pretty badly too. The pair did fairly well, however. They were the only boat to make it past the first round at Dad Vail.

Vails is kind of a circus of sorts. The race isn't a good one by most expectations but it's fun. There are vendors there and thousands of spectators and athletes. While in Philadelphia I heard the race mentioned on the radio, on TV and on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer. I always felt Cincinnati could be a good rowing city if only if had that kind of support. Visibility is half the battle for the popularity of rowing. I'd say 99 percent of UC students don't even know where the team rows. This is not true for students at Temple, Penn, St. Joe's, La Salle and Drexel.

ECAC was much more low-key. It was also cancelled half way into the day after high winds (much like Indianapolis). Regardless, it's been a long trip and it'll be good to be back home.

Head coach Figg said he thinks we should go to the American Collegiate Rowing Association's national championship on May 21 now. He was originally against the plan but has since changed his mind. It's a good race though. It's the only chance everyone will get to race teams from all over the country. It's very well represented.

Last year Jared Kentner (Skittles) and I rowed in a pair during it's inagural race in Oklahoma City. Very good race.