KirstenL4W

Ok, I figure I’ve done a long enough dramatic pause after the first part of this post.  Now you get to find out the current state of my education.

I did find a great job last summer, and was there on a contract basis for about 6 months before I was finally hired on permanently.  It’s the kind of job I was heading for when I left the executive search firm back in October 2006, with the idea that I wanted a job with more room for growth.  I loved working in a small company, but there usually isn’t any room to advance in small companies.  I am now at a large company (technically a medium sized company since we have less than 5000 employees), but there are lots of opportunities.  My office looks like something out of Office Space, but nowhere near as dreadful.  I’m an admin in the finance department, and while the work is easy, I’m looking forward to the opportunities.

When I started looking for more opportunities, I had the idea in mind that I wanted to study accounting.  This is a subject that, while I did well in the class in college, I didn’t have a clue about it and therefore was not fond.  It’s hard to become excited about something that is all theoretical when it should be practical.  But in the working world I developed a fondness for it.  The principles of it don’t change, numbers keep the same rules wherever you go, and it’s something that you can take anywhere, from the biggest cities to the smallest towns.  Being in the finance department is like a dream come true in this regard.

Another wicked awesome thing is that my company has educational reimbursement.  I spoke to my boss about this the other day and told her of my intentions to become edumacated on their dime.  Since I already have my foot in the door there, I have the perfect setup to work my way up and learn lots of different areas of concentration while I go to school.  My boss likes my thinking as much as I do, so the plan is to sign up for a class as soon as the summer schedule comes out.  I have all my core classes done, with the exception of math, so I only need 12 classes for an associates degree.  After that I’ll transfer to a 4-year and continue on so I can earn a Bachelor’s degree.  After that, who knows.

Besides the abstract idea that I should go back to school, and finally deciding what I want to be when I grow up, I have been craving the academic life a bit lately.  On our Thursday night outings, Boyfriend and Big Bad Mama Detroit, who is a high school English teacher, often get into discussions that can take a literary turn.  I find myself missing English classes, since those are subjects that I always enjoyed and did well in.  While not something I want to do career-wise, literature and writing are almost exhilarating.  I consider myself to be somewhat well-read, but the fact that I can’t participate in their discussions as well as I’d like makes me feel like a bit of a dummy.  I feel that my writing suffers at times as well.  So many other blogs I read are so well-written, and I struggle with being able to express myself at times.  It’s like I don’t even know the words to be able to say what I want to say.  While I’m not specifically interested in increasing my vocabulary, I feel that my writing skills in general have become rusty.  I do want to earn my degree in Accounting, but after that I think it would be fun to take some lit and writing classes.

Another interest I have, that I would like to pursue on more of a leisure basis, is graphic and web design.  Ever since working for a graphic design firm, I have been somewhat interested in designing for print.  Having my blog has increased my technical interest, and I’d also love to be able to design my own themes and fully understand what I’m doing when I try to make my blog look the way I want.  But since I know exactly why it is that I want to learn these things, I don’t feel at this time that it would be prudent to invest that kind of money in a hobby.  Maybe someday I’ll do it on a personal interest level, but again, accounting is where it’s at for me.

It’s time to stop floundering around with my jobs.  I think that admin and retail jobs are largely professions that people fall into these days, rather than deliberately choosing them.  It’s time for me to get out of this place I’ve fallen into and take charge of my career.  It’s time to go back to school.

I have been toying with the vague idea to go back to school for quite some time. Years, actually. But it’s hard to come up with some plans without any clue as to what direction one wants to travel in.

Here’s a bit of history: When I was in high school, I was never very academically inclined. I did well in my classes, but overall wasn’t interested. I felt a calling more towards interior design. Rooms were my canvas, and I preferred to shop for sheets rather than shirts. As I was planning the rest of my life, I looked at schools that had design programs. I really wanted to go to a school in Atlanta that I had seen in my mom’s decorating magazines, partly mostly because they had an exchange program in London. But neither one of my parents was wild about the idea. My mother thought I should focus on something more practical like French, since I was doing well in that class, and my father just had that look on his face. That look wasn’t enthusiastic. I was disappointed, since going AWAY to school was a big part of the appeal. But I digress. I looked at schools a bit closer to me and ended up at the esteemed University of Lesser Knowledge Hesser College.

Hesser was in the next town and had an interior design program. Still infatuated with the away at college idea, I took a room in the dorms and immersed myself into college life. Oh, you’re wondering about the comment above? Well, my I found the college prep program in my high school to be more challenging than the course of study at Hesser. But other extra-curricular activities, which found me studying mixology more than interior design, saw me on academic probation and changing my major. I went with the path of least resistance and chose a major that featured classes I actually did well in despite my inebriated state. I focused on small business management the next semester, redeeming myself and my academic standing, but also letting a childhood fear of math get the best of me.

During an English final at the end of the second semester, I was answering an question with a total ass-kissing essay and ended up believing what I wrote. It sure sounded good at the time, and would certainly make a lot of people proud of me. I changed my major again, this time to liberal studies, with the intention of transferring into a 4-year program with a double major of English and education. I graduated Hesser with an Associate of Arts in Liberal Studies, and prepared for more studies at New Hampshire College (known today as Southern New Hampshire University).

Something weird happened when I was at NHC. I threw myself into my studies, but something was off. Something major in a cosmic sort of way. I started feeling like I was on the outside looking in, like I was in the wrong place. Bigger than that, actually - like I was in the wrong life. This life was so not the one I was meant to be living. The feeling became so overwhelming that I withdrew from classes to figure out exactly where I was supposed to be. I took a string of retail jobs, spent some time in Europe, got into office work, and lived a marginally fulfilling life.

In 2003, when I moved to Vegas, I had a bit of money to play with, so I decided to take a course at the local community college as a way to get out there and meet people. While perusing the non-credit courses, I figured why not? Why not take up a course of study? I did come here for a change, after all. But there was this pesky residency thing. Being the cheap shit that I am, I didn’t want to pay an exorbitant fee just because I hadn’t lived here long enough, so I only took 2 classes and took a part time job (Shoe Job). But finish up the core requirements that wouldn’t transfer in, and taking only 2 classes at a time, I lost steam. I needed to work full time, so school fell by the wayside.

That brings you all up to speed of the life of Kirsten, b.b. (Before Blog). As my longtime readers know, I have worked in a variety of administrative jobs, which while not exaclty fulfilling, kept me fairly happy. Until recently. Last year, as I was looking for yet another new job, I was searching for something, but I didn’t know what. I did know that I didn’t want to file and answer phones for the rest of my life. I needed direction.

And right now, I need sleep.  Stay tuned for part 2.