That’s all there is for my 2009 review. Wai is bit mad that I’m not talking about her on here, but I’m way smarter than that.
2009 was a tough year and the economy didn’t help. I am thankful for it.
2008’s last minute employment rejection kick in junk left my balls aching as the calnder changed to 2009. I had just completed my first year in the service of the place I work, which meant I was eligible for a full ride for grad school.
The full ride was one of the reasons I chose to move back to Chicago and take the job. In fact, since leavingg UIUC, it had always been my goal to return to academia. But the reasons for doing so changed over the years.
Originally, I was motivated toy returning to life on campus. I thought I didn’t take much advantage of the culture and events that UIUC offered, but after getting out into the lonely working world, I realized that I missed the social atmosphere. Real life gym isn’t free, there isn’t a smattering of martial arts programs to choose from, and I can forget about getting hundreds of people together to go for the worlds largest pillowfight record.
What made matters worse for me is that I moved from Champaign to Berkely, where my friends in California were heavily involved in the school. They tried their best to incorporate me, but I was ultimately an outsider.
When Perry and Justin both decided to earn higher degrees, a different desire arose in me. Having gotten used to this new stage in my life, I yearned to move up. I wanted that same prestige. I wanted to have something more to show for myself.
It was this desire to not be left behind that ultimately made me choose accept the job in Chicago. They didn’t offer a signifcant increase in pay, an exciting culture, or a job that I wanted to do, but they did offer an open door to further education. Besides the free ride and no-commitment, the name would help me on my applications, and my position and title was a decent step up from what I was before.
But after moving back to Chicago some of my friends had graduated. Having faced the harsh realities of working life which are unknowable to college students and still living in the burbs, it was easier to create my own social circle. This completely erased any lingering need to be part of campus life, a conclusion which I think ends up being echoed by graduate students all around.
The side effect of friends and an environment I didn’t mind so much was that my desire for prestige changed to uncertainy and apathy; the pressure to get another degree behind name lessened. Originally I had sought an MBA, continuing my undergraduate degree in Business Administration. But many of the MBAs I knew did nothing with their degrees. Only ones from the top colleges in the nations seemed to hold decent positions, and those people were middle management dullards.
It was now the beginning of 2009. And the hit to my pride changed my mind yet again. After languishing in a position for a year where the only thing I learned was protocol and how to manage bureaucracy, it seemed like there was no way out. I wanted to learn and grow, more than anything, and the title and letters weren’t important. I needed to do it on my own.
Consequently I chose IT as my graduate field. Business was good, but I felt I wanted to do something more… tangible. Also, it was more me. It was a return to my nerd roots, and would play off my strengths and passions.
Two programs fit the bill. An MS at DePaul in Network Technology, and one at Northwestern in Information Technology. I was accepted into both and chose Northwestern. Partially because of the name, I’ll shamefully admit, but mostly because it threw in a little business with the engineering of IT. It was the reverse of my undergrad, which was mostly business and a little of IT.
From then on, I decided I would be multidisciplinary expert. Straight engineering bored me, but so did business. It was the combination that seemed to be my lot in life.
Leading up to 2009, I had wandered and wained. But if I had entered grad school any earlier, it probably would have been for the wrong reasons.
In 2009, Jon finally was able to escape college of DuPage to make his way to DePaul for seek a degree in Computer Science. It took him a while to get all his ducks in a row, but it is great that he’s moved on from CoD. I suspect CoD (like most community colleges) is a place where the lost and languishing demovated suffer from a crabs-in-a-pot environment.
I know he wanted to go to Northwestern or UIC instead, but a poor highschool career and technicalities kept him out of those colleges. Personally, I think DePaul is a fine school, and I know plenty of brilliant people who graduated from there. Infact might have headed there myself if I had researched my undergrad differently.
DePaul also has a virbant campus, both in the loop and in Lincoln Park, which I think suits Jon as a working adult. He spent his “college years” slacking off at home and CoD, and is already a professional, so the urban and city life is probably more suited than the traditional greek campus.
I think if tries, he’ll come around to it.