Finally done...

Yup, I can't believe it myself. I have finally completed all my course work and will be getting my MBA with a concentration in MIS in two weeks. It has taken me four long years to complete the program. Now that it is over, I look forward to being able to ride my motorcycle a bit more and spend even more time with my wife.

In short, the long road to this degree has not been easy. When I started working on the MBA, it had a real purpose. I was a network engineer for a ISP and the masters was going to promote me to manager. The company was picking up the tab and giving me time off to attend classes. Things were looking great.

But, as we all know what happened in 2000, the dot-com era came to an end. Before I could say "check please", the company I was working for was struggling to stay alive. Things were so bad that people were getting fired over too long of lavatory breaks or showing up to work five minutes late. Eventually, they gave me the choice to either move to Atlanta and forego the MBA or quit with no requirement to repay the portion of the MBA already completed. With no desire to move to Atlanta or give up the MBA, I quit.

Thankfully, I found a job at the very university that I was taking classes. Moreover, I was able to continue the MBA. While the initial intention of the MBA was now gone, I was over one and half years into the program. No point loosing that time and I became committed to finish the degree.

In May 2002, my now wife and I got married. She had just finished her masters degree in Aerospace Engineering and was on the fast track to a great job in Huntsville, AL. Taking the summer semester off, we moved to Huntsville and I started looking for a new job. Thankfully, my university position was still open where I telecommuted for roughly eleven months. Unfortunately, there really wasn't any need for a Unix Administrator without top-secrete clearance in Huntsville. Finding a job was hard and I knew the plug on the university positon was going to get pulled any day.

This pattern continued until May 2003 when I finally landed a job at Adtran, Inc. in Huntsville, AL. Moreover, they found my drive to complete the MBA important enough to pick up the tab. Whew! I never thought I would find another organization that would want me to finish the MBA. But, since I had a large learning curve with a new position, I again took the summer off. But it was more then just work that caused me to take the summer off.

In the winter months of 2003, we started house shopping. So, yes, I was looking for a job, going to school full time, working full time, and shopping for a house! Talk about busy! By April, we decided to build a house. Not too time consuming; however, it definately tapped all my resources. The house was completed in August 2003 and we moved in just before September. This worked out perfectly as school started roughly two weeks after we moved in.

So, we were settled in the new house, I'm married, got a job, and the final bit of work was to finish this bloody MBA. I bunkered down and worked non-stop on it fall and spring semesters. It required an extremely structured life to keep from getting behind in classes. I definately learned what "time management" was all about :)

Finally, at 9:07pm last night, I turned in my final paper for the last class. I'll be hounding the professor all day to make sure he has everything he needs for my successful graduation. My other professors gave me the "thumbs-up" yesterday afternoon. So, everything looks to be a green light for graduation.

WHoo hoo! It's finally over. Now to go refresh my brain and body on "normal" living :D