I’m saying it.

My years in college have drug on far too long.

Work isn’t the worst but it takes up time in my day that I could be doing more enjoyable things.

I guess you could say that waking up in the morning to look at a screen, talk to people, troubleshoot, consult, run scenarios and coach people on how to ____ is an interesting way to spend my day.

Then after my shift is finished at work I close my work computer and open my personal computer and log onto the school site and begin nearly the same amount of time each night learning about what I do in my day job from a different perspective. It’s interesting to be this far in my career and still be a university student at night. It’s not a sad thing, just a draining one that has caused me to feel older than I am yet younger than I am because my time at university has extended far past the usual years one would traditionally spend as a student.

Am I mad or sad about this? Sometimes.

Am I grateful that I have been able to attend college and further my education for the workforce? Yes.

It’s a real balance of thought for me to have always seen the value in a degree. My father never completed school but has ran a business effectively for nearly 40 years, having learned meaning things on the go and as they come up on a need to learn and know basis. I’ve always been of fan of learning things that way so I understand the application of the information rather than just a theory.

In school I’ve often been told this could happen but is unlikely so we’ve decided you need NEED to know it and its going to not make any sense but, you need to learn it to move forward and enter the workforce. That has never made sense to me spending so much time of “What if..” and not effectively running through real world tasks that I can use right away in my day to day work. I once had a class in 2018 where a professor shared data from a pre internet marketing era expressing his belief that the internet would fail sooner or later and print ads still held their weight as the primary marketing we should be running. It was a wild time.

Yet, I’ve seen many people step into university with one plan for their life and walk out with a completely different passion after taking the lower level intro classes. So for some the value changes as they grow and develop. I too changed my major a few times when I started school and yet business and marketing keeps me anchored as my goal for a degree.

I suppose these are just a few of my unorganized thoughts on education and work, with the focus being on school and how I feel about it. I do see an end finally after nearly a decade as a part time student who had worked full time and beyond during that time. I’ll finally see my degree in the spring of 2023.

Thanks for reading,

Casey