May 17, 2004
When I went for my run at CMU on Thursday the setup for graduation was almost complete. The stage was set up and about half of the chairs were in place on the field. I know a handful of the HCI masters students so I'm going to attend this one, the only one I'll have been to besides my own.
Five and a half years ago I said I'd never set foot in a classroom again. Now I'm not so sure. As much as I enjoy doing what it is I do, I feel like I've been stagnating recently. I'm learning new things, like C++, the old-fashioned way (via an O'Reilly book) so I can expand a little bit. But I want to do more.
I'm thinking I want to go back and get a masters degree, probably in HCI. Of course I can't do it just yet, due to the debt I incurred during my 13-month impromptu vacation, but it's one of the things I have my sights set on. Hopefully I'll get a few more freelance jobs to knock down the debt a bit, and get a better-paying job next spring, when I want to move to the DC area. Then I can start looking.
I'm not sure how easy it will be, though. I've been out for more than five years now, and it'll probably be at least 7 when I can afford to do this. And my grades weren't exactly stellar during my undergrad (2.2 cumulative). But I'll have several years' worth of practical experience, and that should count for something.
God... I just realized this is one of the first actual goals I've had for myself in a while. (I don't count "get a job" to be a goal, as that was a necessity unless I wanted to go on the Ethiopian diet. The only other one I can think of is/was Atkins.) Now I just have to get myself to live up to it.
