Year Beginning Letter

This semester, I hope to race Paris-Roubaix. To do this, I will need to train my time trial position and racing skills. I will need to perform exceptionally well at Valley of the Sun Stage Race in February. I will need to be a great teammate and supportive of my family and team and sponsors. This is important to me because it's a goal I've wanted to achieve for a while now. I've wanted to race Paris Roubaix, a classic, against some of the best juniors in the world becaue it would really sum up my junior career as a grand racing experience. 

In the next 5 years, I hope to have had a successful college experience. To do this, I'll need to go to a college that offers a lot of opportunities, both educational and recreational. Another part in making this experience successful is getting to stay with my girlfriend. A successful college experience for me is to really come to terms with what I want to make out of my life. This will be so vital for me as a person because I will find a direction in life and a sense of happiness in achieving that direction. That long term direction. 

In the next 10 years, I hope to still be doing all that I love to do. I know that many pressures start adding up the older you get, but I wish to still be able to balance it all and still have time to do the little things. To do this, I must remember that I am the only one who can choose what I really want to do in life, and if my job doesn't aid that, I probably need to find another one. This is important to me because I believe keeping the little things that bring joy throughout life will really add up and make me a better person as a whole, both mentally/spiritually and physically. Some of those things include riding my bike and playing my trumpet because those things make me happy. I hope to continue those little things throughout my life because I think it's important to remember that life is a collection of experiences, not a destination with an end goal. To me, happiness comes from fulfilling a set of core values every day, and one of my personal core values is continuing what  I love to do. 

Dear Mom and Dad, Here Are My Dreams

Within the next year, I hope to have maintained and pursued my relationship with my girlfriend; she is one of the things that makes me feel whole. I hope to have given you guys more of my time and communicated with you more often, letting you know what's really going on in my life. I wish to be accepted to and go to a big college that has a lot going on in which I am able to keep cycling and playing my trumpet, and most importantly am able to discover and pursue a career interest.

Within the next five years, I hope to have found a career that involves helping others (possibly psychology) and pursue that throughout college. I hope to find time to balance all I love doing, and those I love spending time with, with my career ambitions in college. And I know it doesn't usually work for most that try it, but I wish to stay with my girlfriend into and through college. I know we're both willing to work for our relationship and she's someone I really want in my life (and vice versa). Besides you guys, she's the most supportive, caring, loving person in my life and I want her by my side as long as possible. I wish to have a fulfilling and adventurous college experience in which I find out how I can help others through a career I am interested in and love doing.

Within the next ten years, I hope to have found a place that I love to live, yet am able to still venture away from to explore the world and new things in life. I wish to be able to feel as if I am still young at this age (28), and not like an old man locked down in a constant routine. I hope to have a steady job that I love living every day. In a real sense, I hope to be living life to the fullest still at this age.

It feels like society wants me to be a pro cyclist or pro trumpet player because I've been doing both those things for a very long time and have just kept getting better and better. While I still wish to ride/race my bike and play my trumpet in the future, I do not want to make my life revolve around either of those two things because I feel like all of life should be exploration. Cycling and trumpet playing are things I love to do, yet I feel trying to become a professional in either of those fields would take the simple joy out of the activity itself. So, I wish to pursue a different field in which I can aid others while still being able to hold on to the simple joys of riding my bike and playing my trumpet. That, to me, sounds like a very fulfilling life.