Work Work or Play Work, a Choice I Need to Make
My life got complicated yesterday. I’ve been in touch with Ben Hochberg at ABATE of Colorado about taking their motorcycle trainer training so I can work as an MSF instructor teaching new and experienced riders to be better riders.
My interests are numerous. First, I’m trying to make a living as a motorcyclist, primarily by writing about motorcycling for any publication that will pay me. Being an MSF instructor doesn’t pay a lot but I’m in an every-little-bit-helps situation, trying to piece together a bit here and a bit there to equal a living wage.
Also, being an instructor would undoubtedly provide me with a lot of material for my writing. Heck, just taking the training course will provide me with material even if I never teach a class. Plus, taking the training and teaching the courses would inevitably make me a better rider myself.
And third, I enjoy teaching. I’ve had a few jobs over the years where part of what I did was to train others and I find it very rewarding.
So what’s my dilemma? Well, Ben told me yesterday the dates of the class, two weeks in June, and those are the same two weeks in which I was planning to do a motorcycle trip to California with some friends. Dang!
Of course that trip would also be fodder for my writing, and I don’t take vacations, so I’d be cranking out articles for Examiner.com and RumBum.com and others the whole while I was gone. But it would still be play as work, whereas doing the training would be more work as work. And who wouldn’t rather play than work?
I know the logical choice here is to stay home and do the training. Both the training and the trip would cost me money, some of which I would recoup through my writing, but the potential earnings of becoming a trainer far outweigh what I’d earn from the trip. And paying the bills is a nice thing to be able to do.
But I’d rather go on the trip. Wouldn’t you? Gosh, it just sucks to be me, doesn’t it? Don’t I wish I just had some job sitting at a desk and pushing papers all day! Yeah, right.
So anyway, if you have any thoughts to offer me on this decision I’d be happy to hear them. It just had to be those two weeks, didn’t it?
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December 10th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Ken
Hate to say it but I think you know it already, do the training….after all, what impression do you think it’ll form in their minds when you say: “Gee, first assignment, can’t do it….sorry”.
dom