Grad School = Big Pain in the Ass

i already hate grad school, and i haven't even started classes.

as stated before, i have no head for financial figuring-out, using fax machines, scheduling through various departments, calling different agencies and waiting for 3 to 5 business days for answers to simple questions, etc. etc. - all important aspects of the applying-to-graduate-school process. it should come to no surprise, therefore, that i've been having one hell of a time with the whole ordeal. this is absolute hell, folks. and is turning out to be even more of a pain in the ass than the peace corps application i had to undergo. not very much fun.

as it stands - and again, this is from what kris and i can gather (she's been doing her best to help me out with this, as i'm clinically retarded with this crap) - it looks like all i have to do in order to obtain my professional certification (the five-year renewable teaching certificate that allows me to keep my job) is complete my second year of teaching and take the graduate courses outlined in my masters program. that's it. i was convinced that i'd have to take a crap-load of undergraduate courses, thereby stalling my graduate classes and blowing handfuls of loot just in order to keep my job. that would've sucked big time.

then again, when you owe over $26,000 in student loans, what's another $20,000? i've already come to the realization that these loans are never going away, that i'll have to pass them on through subsequent generations as family heirlooms. i'm sure my great-great-great grandchildren will appreciate this.

...though by that time i'm sure we'll all be ruled by space gorillas and robots, so it won't really matter. (see picture)

fortunately, that's not the case. i get to start right away with the mega-hard classes... which i'm not looking forward to in the slightest. like i said before, folks - i hated college (classes). i'm not good at studying, i'm easily-distracted, i can't stay on top of due dates, and i'm arguably the world's worst procrastinator. so, more or less, i'm screwed with this whole grad school nonsense.

so why am i putting myself through this gauntlet of hell? because the houghs are on a timetable, that's why. when kris and i moved down here to florida in january of '07, we expected to live in florida for four to five years - long enough to obtain teaching jobs, finish grad school, and find work elsewhere. i think i've spelled this out before. ideally, i'd like to find a teaching job in illinois or indiana - somewhere in the midwest, close to michigan (there's practically a zero percent chance i'm going to find any work in michigan any time soon). it'd be nice to be able to make the drive from our place to home in less than 10 - 12 hours. now it takes about 22... and that was driving straight through, without a kid. that drive would be absolutely hell now.

sure, you can fly. but around the holidays, you get screwed with ticket costs and all those crap-fees. $700 - $900 to fly home for christmas for four or five days? not worth it, as far as we're concerned.

and so, with grad school out of the way - hopefully by the fall of 2010 - i'll be in prime positioning to start scouting out job prospects in the great white north.

...at least that's the plan so far.

- brian

Kicking Off Summer Vacation... Sort Of

its been a few days, folks. i apologize.

the last two weeks i've been pretty busy with the ol' middle school scene - saying farewell to my gaggle of teenagers for the summer, closing up shop, and finalizing grades. our last day of school this year was on the 6th, and today i finished my end-of-the-year 'teacher inservice' (i.e. cleaning up my classroom and boxing up all my crap). i am now officially kicking off my summer vacation.

hooray.

this particular summer, however, most likely won't go on record for being one of the most wild and entertaining. yours truly still has some business to attend to that'll occupy most of his potential blocks for fun-time.

for starters, i have to jump through a few more hoops this summer in order to keep my job. usually, this wouldn't be as much of a pressing issue, but since the economy is in the dumps right now (especially in florida), the state decided to hack and slash the dept. of education's budgets to smithereens. that's right, smithereens. counties and districts throughout florida were forced to lay off teachers as school budgets were shrunk. dozens were let go at my school alone and not invited back next year. as a first year teacher, i was convinced i was royally screwed and among the first to be canned. somehow, though, i managed to hold on to my job (a feat i attribute to a hodge-podge combination of sheer luck and stick-to-it'iveness) and satisfy all of the state's requirements for a career changer (i.e. someone who didn't go to college for an education degree)

alas, i only accomplished the requirements needed to be completed during the first year. now i get to start on all of the crap that needs to be completed within the first three years' list, lest i get canned then (if not sooner, depending on how farther south the economy plummets). awesome.

what does aforementioned 'crap' entail? first, i get to take this ESOL (english as a second language) course, starting monday. holy borefest. i have no idea what this class is, really, but i can assure you it won't be as much fun as, say, sleeping on the couch. this class runs two weeks, running from june 16th through the 26th, monday through thursday, 8am - 2pm.

"but wait a sec, brian," you ask, "isn't kristina supposed to be popping out your yet-to-be-named daughter within the next 12 days? and, consequently, doesn't that due date fall right in the middle of this ESOL course?"

yes. yes it does.

i mentioned this to the course facilitator already, and she was nice enough to reply with the ol' "well, you definitely can't miss the birth of your daughter, brian! its a one-of-a-kind experience!" before adding, "i'm sure it won't be a problem to give you one excused absence."

again. awesome.

babies and ESOL courses aside, sometime this summer i have to start applying for grad school... finally. i've been putting it off since i returned from the peace corps. now is the time. i hated college (classes), and i hate the notion of going back to college (for more classes), but i promised myself i'd do this and, dammit, i'm going to do it. besides, when you have tens of thousands of dollars in student loans waiting to be paid off, what's a few more tens of thousands? i wasn't paying any of that off any time soon anyway. perhaps my amassed student debt can be passed down to future generations of houghs. a family heirloom of some sort. we'll see.

so, like i was saying... i can start working on my masters and finish up my teachers' certification by taking a handful of these stupid, district-required courses at the same time. two birds i'm really hoping to beat the bejesus out of a with a big, frickin' stone. this will most likely be a royal pain in my ass, but... what the hell.

in closing... here's to being unemployed for the summer. rock and roll.

- brian