back to school

So, I decided to stop whining about how I never like any of my jobs, and actually do something about it.  I’m going back to school!  Woo hoo!

The short version of the story is that I never wanted to get into IT as a job market, it just kinda happened, and I stayed here longer than I should have.  My real passion in life is doing service, working with people, helping them out, actually making a change in the world.  I don’t really feel like I’m getting that right now.

I’m going back to school this fall semester, to my old college now turned univeristy, Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.  Wootsie. 🙂  I love their mascot, too. I  just think it looks cool.

I’m going to be studying psychology, and maybe sociology as well.  I haven’t decided yet.  For now, I’m only certain about a few things: I am tired of working in IT, I love psychology, and I want to do something else.

What’s been happening over a number of years, though, is I have been pretty much indifferent to the fact that I am unhappy in my career.  I enjoy working with computers, to a degree .. I find them interesting all the things you can do with them, and I get excited about some projects (mostly mine).  But the stamina is just not there all the time, and it’s frequently hard for me to get through a day’s work.  I’m just not that into it.

For years I’ve been telling myself I want to do something different, and as a result, I’ve jumped from job to job which allows me to pick up another different skill set, and make things interesting … kind of rekindle the passion again.  What I was really excited about though, was the chance to learn new technologies and ways of doing stuff in a different job.  And I’ve been really lucky in that regard.  Each one of my jobs has been very different from the past one, and so I’ve gotten a good mix of exposure to lots of different stuff.  I am definitely a jack of all trades.

What got me started thinking about school again, though, was that I finally realized the other week that I spend all my free time learning about two things: theology and psychology.  And I spend almost all my free time doing community service as well.  I believe that the field you should follow is probably indicated by the areas of study your mind drifts to when you have nothing else to focus on.  So, that’s pretty much exactly what I’m doing.

Career-wise, I have no idea what I want to do … and I’m not bothered by that in the least, nor am I interested in finding out.  Again, there’s a few things I’m certain about, and one is that I want to get back into school.  I’ve always been fascinated by psychology, and every class I’ve taken in it so far, I’ve aced with very little effort.  For me, in college, that actually means something.  Comparatively, I think I’ve flunked Math 090 five times.

I am really excited to start school.  I’m going to go slowly, so I can adapt to the transition.  If I create too heavy a load, it will tax my enthusiasm and make me wanna quit (there’s a lot more to that, suffice it to say, I know myself pretty well).  Next semester, I dunno what I’m gonna do.  What I would love to do is work part-time and go to school and take more credits, but with my financial situation, that probably ain’t gonna happen.  That’s okay though, I’m happy to make any progress at the moment.

The other thing I’m excited about is that I’ve signed up for an LDS Institute class as well, at the University of Utah.  I live in Salt Lake, so that’s about a ten-minute drive from where I live, if that.  I signed up for an early morning class that covers just the Book of Isaiah.  I’m stoked.

As far as my computer-related hobbies go, I’ve decided I’m going to start cutting a lot of them out of my life, very quickly.  I’ve already decided to not pursue any new projects, and I’m going to cut off some I’m already maintaining and hand them over to other people … I’ll be writing more about some of that soon.  If I’m gonna be studying and putting myself back on the right path, I don’t want too much stuff holding me back anymore.  A lot of the stuff has been projects that I’ve been wanting to get to for a long time anyway, but lost interest in, so they won’t really come as a big loss for me.

Anyway, that’s it.  I actually registered for school weeks ago, but I didn’t wanna say anything about it until I new it was a sure thing.  That is the case now. 🙂  I can’t wait.  I’ve gone down to campus a few times already, and everytime I go there, I get so recharged about life in general .. at the possibility of turning things around and heading in a new direction, one that I’ve wanted to pursue for years.  Good times, I tell ya. 🙂