i am a knot of about 10 different emotions these day. a sizable part of it is negative and i will not speak of that publicly right now. another part of it is is stress and the final part is awesomeness.
the stress is coming from school. not the fact that it’s the end of the semester and i have a ton to do, because that is normal stress. it became clear to me a couple of months ago that if i wrestle through about 12 credit hours this summer i can finish my degree by taking two class in fall and spring 07/08 and graduate spring ‘08. at the moment i figured that out i have been rather attached to the idea of finishing my degree…this is a first in my life. i also decided at the beginning of this year that i would take 4 weeks of vacation this year. what i have learned so far is that taking vacation is awesome, it makes going to work very tolerable. the unawesome ting about vacation if that it is f-ing expensive even if you try and go the cheap route.
i was doing my bills yesterday and about popped a vein because i am so angry that i never have enough money to do the things i really want, like take vacation and go to school. while iu picks up a fair amount amount of my class expense i am usually stuck with a $1,000 plus bill each semester. i do what i can to make payments each month but it is never paid down until the last second before the next semester classes start. i have been lucky to find classes that fit for my degree but now that i am closer to finishing i do not have that luxury. another big component is that my living expenses doubled when jeff moved out.
when i sit in frustration by my lack of funds i often question why i want this fucking degree anyway. i have already acheived a great deal of professional success. and while i definitely have plans to save the world, what i think needs to be done does not involve a fucking degree.
so i wrestle with finishing my degree which includes (working 50-70 hours per week, being broke, and hating life) versus spending quality building a part-time design business (taking the minimum amount of school, hard work with direct results, tolerable schedule, some extra money). the nature of the design industry is that design skills and talent override degree obtained. while that is not completely cut and dry, it is largely the scenario.
while all of that and the unspoken topic is keeping me down the things keeping me up are: good friends, awesome weather, and dash of beer.