Master's Degree or bust

So, I've always had this dream/goal of going as far as I can in education. I wanted to be Dr. Clark just because I thought that would be pretty cool.

I went to UNC-CH and did get a certificate in Technology and Communication in the graduate program. At that time, that was the only thing offered online in the Master's program. But when I started, there were plans to begin an online Master's Degree program. I had every intention of being one of the first classes to graduate from that program. It never happened.

There are many reasons it didn't. The main one was money. It's super expensive to go back to school. I paid for the certificate program out of my own pocket. And if I were to go back to school for a Master's Degree, I would hope to not have to get any more loans to do it. I have enough school loans at the moment and I'm barely able to pay them back! So obviously, with Allen out of work for so many years, it was just unreasonable for us to do.

Another reason was fear. I don't want to fail. Things have changed a lot since I was in college. I struggled a lot with the certificate program and I was scared I'd not be able to get through the Master's program.

Then, of course, it was time. My job keeps me pretty busy. I work at night, on weekends, and sometimes at the last minute so going back to school, even online would be a challenge.

Time definitely continues to be an issue. I have a little one now and he takes up a lot of time. If I'm not working, I'm with Corbin, trying to play with him and spend as much time with him as possible. I don't want school to interfere with that too much.

And now, my life is focused on Corbin and giving him the best education I can. So every extra dime we have is going into a savings for him to go to school, whether it's a super expensive private school (which I wrote about a few blogs ago) or college. I want to make sure he can do whatever and go wherever he wants. So, I suppose I feel like at this point, I have to sacrifice my own wants and desires for my family.

But lately, I've been thinking hard about it. I don't know why. It's not like getting a Master's Degree is going to allow me to make more money in the newspaper business. It won't. But my initial plans were to get my Master's Degree so maybe I could teach journalism at the college level on a part-time basis to supplement my newspaper salary with potential plans to leave the newspaper business once I had a family and teach full-time. But teaching? YUCK. Some people were meant to teach. I don't believe I am one of those people. But could I be?

A part of me feels like if I'm going to preach to my kid about how important a good, quality education is, then maybe I should have one myself.

I don't know what I'll end up doing. I'm 31 years old now. That's like a 100. If I keep thinking about it, I'm scared I'll lose my chance forever.