Hello. Welcome to the beginning of my adult life. Everything up to this point has made me who I am, but it’s also history, and I’m not trying to bring you up to speed. More important things ahead, and I’ll spare you the small-talk. Here, I’ll illustrate my life plan, touch on some of my guiding thoughts along the way, and give you some of my ideas on the paths that we choose to travel. My name is Ryder McGinnis. I am in my fourth year of university. Today marks one month since my twenty-first birthday.

It’s an interesting experience, watching someone’s face when I tell them about my major in Religious Studies. I’m sometimes asked, “What are you going to do with that?” I usually tell people: “I’d like to be a rockstar.” It gets a laugh, and is perhaps a version of my vision. It tends to be easier than trying to explain my entire worldview in a ‘get to know ya’ situation.

People are fulfilled, each in their own unique way. There’s no way that I can personally identify every single person’s outlook, but I acknowledge and respect that I have a responsibility to try and understand their point of view. I do my best to demonstrate this, and have found that it’s usually reciprocated. Sometimes, though, we can be blinded by our own way or view, and forget to show respect. I am sometimes a little jaded or frustrated by the paths that seem to be universally ‘expected’. If you want to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, those are excellent professions. If it is your dream to take up such a career, I hope that you are proud to pursue this, and I am proud of you. However, I sometimes encounter a lack of understanding when it comes to how I spend my life. Personally, I can’t spend time on anything that I’m not one-hundred percent invested in, but when I find something worth my attention, there’s no barrier from which I will shy away.

I’m close to finding the balance. My life right now is driven by my desire for knowledge and my passion for music. Already, I’m energized and motivated by each direction I’m heading right now. In the last year I’ve seen myself grow. I’m working towards things that I’m passionate about, and in everything I’m doing, I’m picking up the skills I want for later. Why am I telling you this? I’ve been asking the question for days. Looking back, as an athlete, I remember hearing that when you have a dream, you have to say it out loud, so you have public accountability. I have a dream. I don’t know exactly what it looks like yet, but I have one, and writing this incredibly self-indulgent article is my way of standing on a food-court table in the mall and shouting it out.

Now here’s my plan. With two years left in my degree, if I choose to pursue Religious Studies as a career path, the options are mainly scholarship, education, and archaeology, each of which I am certain that I would thoroughly enjoy. However, I have no real intentions of pursuing a career in this field. After I finish my degree, I’m looking at moving back to Edmonton to study music at Grant MacEwan. Learning, playing, and creating music is how I achieve fulfilment, and my dream is to build this into my life and work; the infrastructure from which I can share my passion with others. I don’t know what that looks like yet. I only know that there is a path for me where I can play, write, perform, lead, create, inspire, and build.

Music lessons are my next ‘first step’. If I’m getting into a music program, there’s a lot that I need to learn in the next two years; but the skill level that used to seem unattainable, I think is now within reach for me. I understand what needs to be done to bring myself up to speed. If music is a language, then I know the alphabet. I can speak the words and convey some basic thoughts, but I’m held back by an incomplete understanding of the fundamental grammar. There is a world of musical vocabulary and I am determined to find my voice.

Among the most exciting things about beginning to improve at anything is realizing how much more there is to learn. I first discovered this humbling sensation in a revelatory breakthrough on guitar, but I’ve noticed the sentiment ring true many times since then. In my case it’s associated with creative addiction. The products of my creativity give me the same feelings as when I was a kid with a shiny new toy. Every bit and piece that I produce makes me hungry to create more. Every new breakthrough opens up my world and motivates me to conquer it. I am perpetually climbing the foothills of a mountain whose peak is out of sight, but I am not discouraged. I am humbled by its magnitude, and through climbing, derive purpose. I don’t know exactly where I’m going, but I’ve grown up, and I know what I want to do. Welcome to the beginning of my adult life.