More mundane rambling on school...

So anyway, to continue talking about school plans... now that I've been going back to college Hubby has now decided to do the same. He did go to OU around, oh, 1978 or so, but life sorta got in the way of the degree. It hasn't really mattered up until now, but it seems the whole business industry hiring process has changed the last few years... companies want you to electronically submit your resume and it just goes into the system to be scanned for keywords... so the chances of them actually finding and READING your resume has the same odds as finding a needle in a haystack. After being in sales for 25 years and no degree it's hard to stand out from the crowd.

Now the nice thing about anyone deciding to go back to school... your choices. You sit down and ask yourself, "What do I REALLY want to do?" It's like a whole new future opens up, you can choose to do anything you want. After doing some research we found that University of North Texas has a brand new degree program starting this year, the only one in the country of its kind... a degree in "Mechanical and ENERGY Engineering"- learning to search for alternative energy sources, solar, wind, nuclear, nanotechnology, etc because of the rise in energy prices. UNT states that they have over 800 companies in the DFW area looking to hire their students and the school can help students find a relevant job in the field after taking only 12 credit hours... wow. I'm curious to see if that's true or just a sales pitch for the campus. At some point this semester we need to go visit the school to get the real details on the degree. But for now, he's just going to be going to Tarrant County the same as me to get the core curriculum crap out of the way. Let's face it, community college is easier and cheaper for the basic classes like History, Biology, Psychology and the like.

So we're taking a few classes together.... this is going to feel SO STRANGE having my spouse sitting in school next to me...

I'm deciding I'm probably going to go on to UNT myself. Apparently they have one of the largest schools for visual arts in the area. It sounds impressive to be large, but it also puts me off a bit... I don't want to be "one of many" being churned out, just another sheep from the fold. I want to stand out from the crowd, not be lumped in with thousands of other students from the program. But, TCU is waaaayyyyyy too expensive and SMU is too far away, so it looks like UNT is my only option for an arts school. Maybe I'll feel more inspired after visiting the campus.

By the way, it's amazing to me how many people I know going back to college! Both my neighbors are in school (AND working full-time, AND have a baby, man to be young and have that much energy again!) Then my friend Erika, her husband is going back regardless of having a steady job with Bell Helicopter for years and years. It's like everyone has realized how the job market has changed, and has also come to the realization that they're going to have to make a career change to stay afloat...

To quote C.S. Lewis in The Last Battle: ONWARD AND UPWARD!