The Future: All the Gory Details

[Warning: This post contains a lot of photos!]

I have decided to write a post- a detailed one at that- about my future. What I plan to do with my life.

I am one of those people who needs to have an exact, strict plan of what is ahead so that I can allow myself to  breath because I know what is coming. I need it to be planned in order to be spontaneous. 

So you can imagine how hard it is to be able to relax, be spontaneous when something like college and onwards is always uncertain...

Many people are puzzled by my need to know what I am going to do in my life and just how terrifying the words "I don't know." are to me. So perhaps by writing about my future will help people understand a bit more what exactly I mean.

With the path I am on at school right now I will hopefully be able to graduate in December of 2013 rather than May 2014. I am progressing well with my credits so hopefully I will be able to accomplish that.

Some recommend staying in school till May because you are less likely to get off-track for college. However I think that if I was to have those 8 months before I started college, it would be almost a gap year for me. I would finish any books I am writing at the time so I wouldn't have to worry about it. I am also hoping that during this time I will be able to perhaps intern for Emily again, focus on my horsemanship and my two marvelous horses.


Now it is the beginning of summer and I am leaving for Sewanee in a few months. Why Sewanee? Well I have compared MTSU and Sewanee and I really love the fact that Sewanee is in a rural setting. Have you seen the photos? It is gorgeous. 

I once shared a dream with Kara of going somewhere far away for college, escape from Chattanooga and all the rest of it. But is soon dawned on me that with Sharlie and Casper I couldn't go running off to New York, Utah or anywhere else for that matter. Also I have built a small- very small in fact- network of friends here. Emily, Hannah, Kara... I plan to build it a bit more before I leave.

However I still don't want to stay too close.

Now of course there is the thing that Casper currently belongs to the stable. My plan is to buy him a couple months before I go off to college. I would buy him now if I could afford it or work off the hours but I can't. Especially not now that I am juggling 4 after school clubs and such.

Once I buy Casper and he is officially mine I plan to take both Sharlie and Casper with me to Sewanee (hopefully by this point Sharlie will have had a major break through and will load like any other Parelli horse. If this does not occur, then I will have to ride her there.)

That is where some 'I don't know's come into play. I don't know where I will keep Sharlie & Casper. Sewanee has a stable but it is small, expensive and I have a feeling there won't be very many Parelli people there :/ 

No, what I am hoping is that I will find a Parelli-friendly stable/ a stable where there are a couple Parelli people. That or I find a Parelli person who has their horse(s) on their own land and I board them there...something along those lines.

At Sewanee I plan to get my English degree so I can continue to write. Whether it be writing novels or editing for the Savvy Times, I still want to write.

After I get my English degree, I will probably take a year or two to get my horsemanship to the point it needs to be to begin my journey to becoming a Parelli Professional. I would get a job and start saving up to the trip to Colorado. I am not sure what sorts of scholarships Parelli will offer at that point and time but I'll be hoping to get alot of them.

There is of course my horses. By the time I make it to Pagosa Springs Casper will be almost 30- retired for sure. I am planning on retiring him when he is around 25. He is a healthy pony now but he is beginning to show signs of wear and tear. For example his joints hurt him from time to time, become stiff and painful during the coldest part of winter. When he retires I won't be able to afford to keep him. My plan? Find a good kind loving home where someone (Parelli of course) will continue to play with him on the ground from time to time perhaps, and make a great companion for another horse.

Sharlie will be bordering 20 at this point. So it is very unsure of whether she will be the horse to come with me to Pagosa Springs. She may come and stay at the center later, when I am an intern or something but not for the beginning. 

So I will be horseless? No. Emily plans to have a QH breeding program in a few years time. I hope to go and study with her when she has the program set up because it is something that has always held my curiousity. And I am hoping that perhaps there I will find a young horse that will be my partner through the next step of my life.

I spoke of focusing on my horsemanship before and after university. Well while I was writing this post I began talking with the 3* Parelli Professional Jamie Evans, who lives out in Colorado. It was very interested to talk to him. I enjoyed it a lot.

He mentioned a new intensive study program he and his wife (Mattie Cowherd, also a 3*) were offering and encouraged me to look into it. Reading about it now I find myself very excited about the idea. Not something to do at this very moment but perhaps during my 8 month break before college. I couldn't take Sharlie or Casper out there because it is too far but still.  

http://www.parellihorseplay.com/INTENSIVE-STUDY.html

I always thought that Ocala was the place where I would begin  and perhaps complete my journey to become a Parelli Professional. However this news that they have to sell the center obviously changes that. When Parelli announced that they were selling the Ocala campus I cried. I know, but its true. You see, going to Ocala with my horse (whether it be Sharlie, Casper or someone else) was on my bucket list. Now that goal is never going to happen.

Emily and the others who are going to Ocala for their fast track are lucky. They are one of the last few to go there before the center shuts down. Savor it.

So my new future home will probably be the Pagosa Springs campus, a magical place in itself. I still am excited to go there, it is just a little farther to drive. Okay, a lot farther. But if it is meant to happen, it will happen.

I look forward to the day when I can ride under that same view and study under Pat & Linda Parelli. 

I realize its a taboo subject but they are not going to around forever. (Or maybe they will! :D ) So we are entering a new stage of Parelli I believe...an expansion, a large bound of progress. And I want to be there when it happens.

So those are all the gory details. The main factor that involves all of this is money. Of course. If only I could win the lottely, a million dollars, and I wouldn't have to worry in the slightest. Of course life doesn't work that way. But I will make it happen. Its what I am going to do in life.

Goodnight,

Julia

(Don't be put off by his expression :P )