Celebration Time

As you may or may not have noticed, I haven't been as prompt or regular in my postings here lately. The reason for that is I've been cramming for an exam over the last few weeks. I'm five classes away from graduating with my BS in IT. So yesterday I had my exam, and as luck would have it, I passed with flying colors. Whew. It was a certification exam on databases (something I don't do on a regular basis), so there were definitely areas that were hard to memorize. But now I'm done with that one and starting the next - Security. Yeah, this one is even harder, but I only have two more tests left. Then I have three classes that consist of a 50 - 70 page project, my capstone. I'm taking on the project of how one would go about setting up a networked environment in a dentist office. I got the idea because my wife aspires to be a dentist some day. So I'm hoping by the end of this year to get all of that done and be walking across the stage with diploma in hand.

I've been going off and on to college for like 20 years, fitting in a class here and there where I could. Its been tough, but I switched colleges (from Metropolitan State College of Denver to Western Governors University) halfway through. This has turned out to be a good thing, because WGU is a completely online program. This has been much easier for me to do my classes. It's also competency-based, so I don't get letter grades. Instead I have to pass industry certification exams or write papers showing my competency in a subject area. Let me tell you - the math area was a bear for me to get through. It's never been one of my favorite subjects. I didn't discover my love of writing until very recently, so while I should have worked towards a degree in English Lit maybe, I'm already too far along to change it now. Who knows, maybe I'll take a creative writing class sometime. I've been working in IT for over 15 years though, so at this point it just makes sense for me to finish up my degree. Ironically, I've made to a high position without my degree, but since I'm a govt worker, maybe that makes sense. All of you out there groaning about us govt workers need to just quit complaining. Not all of us are lazy good-for-nothings. I won't argue that there are plenty of prime examples, but there are some dedicated people too, just trying to do what they can to make it better.

In any event, I've been flying on clouds since I passed yesterday afternoon. Now I have to buckle down once more and start memorizing security protocols. I will try to make future posts however, about writing instead of the IT world. Trust me, it gets boring for us admins sometimes too so don't feel so bad.