My Pumpkin Carriage

Time Draweth Nye. Tonight at the stroke of midnight my online classes begin and the slow death to my vacation ends. I haven't taken college courses in a long time, and each time I have, I've devised a scheme to somehow sabotage myself and drop them.

I did make some last minute changes to my classes, dropping one class and adding another and changing the math class locations and time. I did this for a couple of reasons; 1. To lesson the workload and 2. I've been thinking about the paychecks I will be missing out on in the coming weeks. I know we'll be able to keep the lights on and food on the table, but unfortunately, I won't be able to get that Marlin Front Bumper with Stinger for the 4runner. By moving my classes around I've opened the door to the possibility of returning to work. Not my ideal plan, but it's an option I really can't afford to not look at. I will finish the prerequisites courses during night school while I wait for my name to be called off the waiting list for the Nursing program.

On a side note, the payout of the GI Bill just increased to 4.2%, increasing the monthly maximum amount from $1,368.00 to $1,426.00. Add in the Air National Guard kicker and it comes out to $1,776. That means If I use 36 months of chapter 30 Montgomery G.I. Bill Uncle Sam will have donated $63,936 towards my education. That's not including the additional 12 months of Post 9/11 GI Bill I will be able to use after the chapter 30 is used up. There is even an additional kicker that I had the opportunity to buy into while I was on Active Duty, but like an idiot, didn't pursue. At the time I was separating and the kicker was $600 that I felt I needed to use to move back home. I am kicking myself in the ass for it now.

Whenever I meet someone who is struggling or debating with the decision to join the military, I always tell them to do it. There are excellent life experiences to be had, great friends to be made, and excellent job opportunities if you get into the right field. And at the end of it all, over sixty-thousand dollars to apply towards your real goals / dreams when you are ready.

History lesson

Not sure if you care to hear all of this but I feel (almost obligated) I should tell you some more about myself, so here goes.

I enlisted in the Air Force in 1998 and left in 2006. The day I was discharged and drove out the main gates the last time, I extended my left arm fully out of the driver side window and let my bird fly. Needless to say I had no questions about "getting out" of the military . I was separated through a program (Palace Chase) that obligated me to double my time with the Air Guard. When separating, I chose to accept the governments offer to relocate my family and I back to my home state of Tennessee, for free (I actually made a small dime off the move as I did a DITY move and it required two trucks!).

While in Tennessee I was employed for a Non-Profit organization "Oak Ridge Associated Universities" (ORAU). I was a network administrator for them and was afforded the opportunity to work with some really bright co-workers. Most of us were in our twenties, some were over 40. One day I came to work to find black balloons that said "Over the Hill" and caution tape covering one of the system administrators cubicles. It was his 50th birthday and I had to replace a UPS (that's an uninterupptable power supply to you non IT folk) powering one of his computer systems. As he logged into the server I noticed it was running Windows Server 2000. I asked him, "why don't you upgrade to Server 2003?" (Microsoft's "Longhorn" or "Vista" was just around the corner at this time), he basically looked at me and said, "Because I don't want to learn a new operating system. An operating system that will inevitably be replaced again in 1,2 or 5 years by another completely new system." "I'm not interested in re-learning something new, this one works just fine and is serving it's purpose with Server 2000". At the time he said these words to me, I thought he was just a grumpy old man not willing to learn his profession, someone riding out there days until retirement. Well Mr. Windows 2000 Server Sysad, I concur. How many times in one's career as a network a system administrator will one be required to update or upgrade to something newer, faster, stronger, or better? In my short career as an admin... lots. Too many to count.

Flash forward 3 years and I'm on my second job a GS employee with the Air Guard. In Arizona, right across the street where I used to drag my feet into work everyday, (mumbling something about management no doubt). You'd think I was some type of super computer technician if you read my position description, not so. I mostly do low level tasks, or as I prefer "bitch work". I order more toner for printers and unlock/create user accounts, ensure the over used toilets are flushing properly. Sure, I have some responsibilities, but those are things I've taken upon myself to embark on. Nobody else would do them, or I just seen the requirement so I jumped on it. Trust me, I make the most that I can at this place, I'm not trying to sit by and forget everything I've learned about managing a Cisco 6500 series switch or a Foundry Big Iron RX-8 switch. But for the most part our loyal contractors are the ones doing the good stuff, and we've been told it's "hands-off" unless you're on the contract.

I left the Air Force for a few specific reasons, deployments (being halfway around the world when your child is born and learning to walk and talk doesn't help you bond very much), co-workers (or co-do nothing and make rank then become management I should say), and WAR. I grew up in an Arab neighbor hood and had a sneaky suspicion the military was ill prepared for the culture shock they were about to encounter while searching for "Weapons of Mass Destruction" within Iraq. But I digress... When I drove back through those same guarded gates I'd so happily flipped off over a year ago, I felt as though I'd fallen on my sword. Like I just couldn't make it in the real world doing a real person job. I felt disappointed and ashamed, almost like a failure. But, hey, it pays the bills right?

So needless to say, I'm in the mood for a drastic change and nursing really seems to fit that bill. I also don't want to be bound to the ever changing and evolving world of IT when I'm 50 years old. I'm burnt out now, I can't imagine this at the end of my career. So... I'm on schedule to start my first semester of college at the end of the month. I know for a fact that I'm not interested in a degree in IT. And nursing has all of the flexibility, pay, benefits(?), career paths and mostly rewarding. I'm 95% sure this is what I'm going to do. Currently I'm on paid vacation for two weeks, then I start 12 weeks of FMLA for the birth of my son. It's during this time I will be going to school and at the same time applying for other Gov't jobs here and back in TN. I intend to quit work at the end of my 12 weeks and go to school full time, even without having been accepted to the nursing program. I can't apply for the nursing program until I've finished the pre-reqs and I'm still applying for IT jobs in the mean time. However in order for me to get the grades I want and to use up my Montgomery GI Bill effectively, I think I need to focus 100% to my school work.

Who knows... maybe one day I will be seeing you in the ER because you stuck your finger in the fan of your super powered server! (/wave @Kent)