We often ask young people to envision where they will be five years from now as we try to get them to plan for their future. Many businesses and governments create five year plans as a way of setting improvement goals. The time frame is just far enough out that decisions made in the next year would start to see their results. However, not everything turns out the way that one might plan. For example, two years before I made my move to Alaska, I had made a prediction that I would never make it back up here for anything more than a vacation. Still, looking five years ahead can be a helpful tool.
For me, I do not have any plans to change professionally in the next five years. Although I now have my doctorate, I am quite content with my job (even with the stresses of these past couple of years). I might want to branch out a bit, perhaps presenting at a conference or two, or conducting further research, but I do not currently have any set plans in that direction. I will need to renew my teaching certificate again by then, but I've already met the requirements needed for that, so it will just be a paperwork hurdle.
In five years, Connor will be (hopefully) a freshman in college. Currently, he wants to be an engineer, but I don't know if he will go the UAF route or will seek a warmer climate. Meanwhile, Rowen will be a junior in high school and starting to solidify what he will want to do once public school is over. Assuming that Trevor will have also decided to live separate from us by then, it would be strange to only have one child living in the house with us--a condition we have not been in since Katrina was born.
Aside from a plan to remodel our kitchen and upstairs bathroom, I do not have big plans for our house or property. Not counting the regular repairs that pop up, I'm quite content with our house as it is. The only vanity project I wouldn't mind having done is turning the current attic space into a loft. I suppose the only other thing that I would really want is a better connection to the Internet.
Physically, I would like to reverse my current trend and start getting back towards the progress I was making my first couple of years after moving here. Starting next year, not having to drive to Sterling Elementary after work will go a long way in freeing up time to do that. I managed to get into better shape in my forties than I was in my thirties; perhaps I can do even better as I enter my fifties (in a few years).
I would also like to have written at least one more book by then.
For me, I do not have any plans to change professionally in the next five years. Although I now have my doctorate, I am quite content with my job (even with the stresses of these past couple of years). I might want to branch out a bit, perhaps presenting at a conference or two, or conducting further research, but I do not currently have any set plans in that direction. I will need to renew my teaching certificate again by then, but I've already met the requirements needed for that, so it will just be a paperwork hurdle.
In five years, Connor will be (hopefully) a freshman in college. Currently, he wants to be an engineer, but I don't know if he will go the UAF route or will seek a warmer climate. Meanwhile, Rowen will be a junior in high school and starting to solidify what he will want to do once public school is over. Assuming that Trevor will have also decided to live separate from us by then, it would be strange to only have one child living in the house with us--a condition we have not been in since Katrina was born.
Aside from a plan to remodel our kitchen and upstairs bathroom, I do not have big plans for our house or property. Not counting the regular repairs that pop up, I'm quite content with our house as it is. The only vanity project I wouldn't mind having done is turning the current attic space into a loft. I suppose the only other thing that I would really want is a better connection to the Internet.
Physically, I would like to reverse my current trend and start getting back towards the progress I was making my first couple of years after moving here. Starting next year, not having to drive to Sterling Elementary after work will go a long way in freeing up time to do that. I managed to get into better shape in my forties than I was in my thirties; perhaps I can do even better as I enter my fifties (in a few years).
I would also like to have written at least one more book by then.
RSS Feed
