Thursday, December 17, 2009

Back to School....

Well, it's only been 10 years since I was in school...how different can it be? Don't answer that! I know things have changed a great deal in the last ten years, but I feel compelled to get this done.

I was attending the University of Washington's Evening Degree program in 1997 and 1998. I would have just continued to go and been finished with the program and the degree in 2000, but wound up getting my IT job as a software trainer in 1999. There was way too much to learnb on this new job for me to be able to sustain that and upper level coursework at the U.W. too. So I left the program and decided I would go back after a couple of years when I found my legs on my new job. Well, two years turned into ten seemingly overnight and here I am, finally going back to school. The cost of college has doubled since I've been out. It's really staggering what it costs to get a decent education these days. But the good news is, I should be done in early 2011. So just one more year, and maybe another quarter after that and I'll have my bachelors in political science. Will I make more money? No. Will it help me in my career in any way? No. What it will do is give me a sense of completion for something I started a very long time ago. It's always bothered me that I didn't complete my bachelors degree. Very much. When Kristopher decided he wanted to go back to school, I did everything I could to encourage that - now he'll be done with his bachelors and looking toward his masters in just a few months. For the past three years I've been of a mind that it was too late for me to do the same. Well, there was early 2008 when I made another run at the U and had all my documentation ready to sign up, but was vascillating because Kristopher wanted me to try the distance degree program like he did - the end result was that I didn't go back at all and thereby wasted another two years. It really does go by very, very quickly.

So that's it. Classes start January 4. Wish me luck.