Birthday Shenanigans and kind of some news

Today is my birthday...

I'm 42

Luckily, it coincides with both a Saturday and the release of a whole season of Fuller House so I pretty much had my day planned for me.

However, I still have children and they still want things, so I spent the morning doing laundry, making pancakes, watching "this*".

I did get a chance to go out and run. I moved to the next workout on my 5KRunner app and was pretty excited I made it through a 6 minute running interval. I was feeling great during my last 2 minutes of running, and running probably a little faster than I should have down a mild hill, and I tripped and fell. I got right up as soon as I could an finished the interval, but then I hobbled home, bleeding. Hopefully no one saw me fall. It was embarrassing.

But what I really wanted to talk about today was something I have been thinking about and have kind of decided.

So, when I decided to go back to school to get a doctorate, the main goal was to get a better job someday. The idea of calling myself "Doctor" is also fun, but at this point in my life, I need to think about what is going to make more money. Moving into leadership as a director of a library or a dean, or in university administration, was my goal.

But even though I was determined to finish long distance, moving and changing jobs has made it really challenging. I managed to finish my incomplete last semester and take a class on law in higher ed, but this semester I didn't enroll in any classes. The main reason is I just can't afford it.

I have taken out so many student loans in my life that I am not allowed to take out any more. Wow, thats an accomplishment. But it's incredibly depressing and even if I could, I won't take out any more student loans. I can't afford to pay out of pocket either, since we are still spending more than we make (that's a story for another day).

However, one of my benefits in my new job is a full tuition waiver. I mean, they pay for everything except books and the matriculation fee. This is an amazing opportunity (It's a very high quality private school), but none of the doctoral degrees really appeal or apply to me. So I started thinking about what degree I could get that could help me make more money at some point and give me a better chance of moving into leadership.

So I decided to apply to the MBA program.

It's such a significant program at our university that I think getting involved with it will inspire me and give me the tools to create some pretty awesome library initiatives for the students. So I think it will help me be a better librarian as well.

I applied and I'm waiting for my transcripts to arrive and then to hear if I'm accepted. If I am, I hope to start this summer.

I'm not giving up on the doctorate, but maybe in a few years when we are out of our financial hole and my kids are older, I can pick it up again. I mean, I'm only 42...

*"this" meaning some sort of dangerous gymnastics type stunt usually.