The truth of long-term WD-type fasting

[Susie Rosenberg]

I've been lurking here, trying to learn a few things about strength training and nutrition, but I can't help jumping in here because I think what I tell my own two high school kids might be helpful:

You don't have to figure out what you are going to do for the rest of your life at this stage. You only have to figure out what to do first.

I, myself, have had two career iterations, and am heading into a third: I started with a college degree in nursing, worked as an OB nurse for a while, then went back to college to fulfill premedical requirements. I've been a practicing physician for almost 25 years now, and I'm working on my third shift into teaching and coaching health and wellness instead of treating people with illnesses.

It takes a lot of pressure off if you understand that your first choices are not your last. Everything in young adulthood is about learning. Who you are, what fits, what doesn't. Some people know what they are meant to do, they have a calling. That's not true for most people in their teens. For most of us, there's trial and error and fine tuning.

I'm 52 years old, and if there's one thing I would like to have told my young self it is, "Don't be afraid. Be bold."

Susie

[David Aguasca]

Heidi,

i dropped out of cornell for personal reasons, so don't make them your own. i was unhappy studying engineering, i didn't make any close friends in 3 semesters, and hated the academic pressure.

i'm now at plymouth state university, getting my degree in adventure education. my classes are much easier (and more enjoyable), i've already started making close friends, and i have time to climb and be outside instead of stressing out at the library in front of a book.

i REALLY agree with susie on this one. for now, my plans involve being a rock climbing guide and instructor. what i do after that depends on what happens between now and then. your first choice is not your last! (thanks, susie)

it IS possible to make it in this society WITHOUT a degree. i think it's much more difficult. it requires either that you lower your standard of living and accept working at a place like McDonalds, or you have to be an amazing entrepreneur. either one is difficult.

[-Ross Hunt]

It's good that you two (Greg and Heidi) are devoting so much passionate interest to living a happy life and not being jumping straight into the way people are living theirs all around you.

Nevertheless, I think that you paint far too bleak a view of higher education and human society. Society is not so depraved that the only way to live a happy life is to try to get back to nature as much possible, and education is not everywhere so bent towards avarice that it doesn't exist for the sake of something higher.

You might consider looking into an undergraduate program at a small liberal arts college with a strong core program. I went to St. John's College (a small school in Maryland) primarily because when I visited it seemed like people there were all interested in reading books and talking about with the aim of finding out what the right way to live is, and carrying what they learned from those old books into practice. I went to other, more presitigious colleges (like Swarthmore), but I was turned off by exactly the phenomenon you're describing: Everyone already thought they knew exactly what they were going to do with their lives, and they weren't interested in questioning whether that was really conducive to their happiness. Lots of other small colleges have the same spirit as St. Johns; they are communities of people devoted to actively considering what the good life is.




As to the original question: The Warrior Diet sounds great in theory, but I like not disappearing when I turn sideways too much to follow it.

[Garrett Smith]

David,
Your experience at Cornell sounds very much like mine at Northern Arizona U. I was in mechanical engineering, didn't make any new friends other than the ones I already knew from Tucson, and after I learned of engineer hours I decided it wasn't for me (also, there were absolutely NO women in my classes I was interested in meeting and I am definitely not the "bar pickup" type). I even tried pledging a fraternity--that didn't end up so well.

I came back down to the UA. I saw a book cover that was titled, "Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow". Didn't need to read the book, I got everything I needed off the title. So I asked myself what I loved to do. The only answer I found was weight training and nutrition (and reading about training and nutrition). I figured that was as good an answer as I needed. Looked in the school catalog to find a major that would facilitate this "love". Found exercise physiology as a major, ended up minoring in nutrition and chemistry. Needless to say, I didn't find the studying that hard (except in organic chem and biochem, those just don't make sense to me).

Took me a couple of years after graduating to find naturopathic medicine (or I should say it found me). I was working in a supplement store when my manager put a recruiting poster for my school (www.scnm.edu) on the side of the refrigerator. I was enrolled in a month.

Now I'm treating patients with nutrition, exercise, and lasers. Works for me (at least for now!).

A little ramble-y, but maybe someone will get something out of it.

[Yael Grauer]

Ross, you went to St. John's? I went to Shimer! Love those Great Books schools.

Here's a recent NY Times article about us: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/ed...=1&oref=slogin

[-Ross Hunt]

Yael,

That school sounds awesome!

Sounds small, though... 450 students at St. John's felt claustrophobic; I can't imagine dealing with a campus of less than 100!

[Yael Grauer]

Originally Posted by -Ross Hunt

Sounds small, though... 450 students at St. John's felt claustrophobic; I can't imagine dealing with a campus of less than 100!

Well, it was about 120 and VERY claustrophobic; that's why I escaped to Chicago every weekend. $5 Metra! I also hung out in little nearby towns. Now they're at IIT so that's not as much of a problem...

[-Ross Hunt]

That would actually be much less claustrophobic than SJC, then; we were basically stuck in Annapolis with no one around except Johnnies, townies, and the occasional Midshipman from the Naval Academy down the street, and no public transportation to DC.

[Greg Battaglia]

Roos, I could walk to Swarthmore College from my house. Also recently discovered that Steve Liberati and I aren't too far from one another. What a small world.

[Yael Grauer]

Originally Posted by -Ross Hunt

That would actually be much less claustrophobic than SJC, then; we were basically stuck in Annapolis with no one around except Johnnies, townies, and the occasional Midshipman from the Naval Academy down the street, and no public transportation to DC.

But you know how heavy the reading load is! It was hard to escape. I am lucky to be able to read on a moving train, however, and my typing speed is ridiculous. I was one of the lucky few. I also had friends in Chicago who'd let me sleep on their floors.

I miss college.