My circumstances at the start

Here's the things I need to be concerned about as I take the academic plunge.

1.) I'm married.
2.) I have a house.
3.) Since I'm choosing Physics (moreover, I believe it chose me), there's going to be a lot of math. That will be a challenge, as I will explain later.

So why are these challenges? Read on:

1.) Being Married.

Interestingly, once you get married, you no longer get to make all your decisions on your own. I know. Some of you are amazed. And some of you are thinking: I can't believe she's letting you go back at all...

That's where this gets more interesting. She knows I'm going back, or it least she hopes I am, but she doesn't QUITE know yet that it's for Physics. I wonder if she'll want to be married to a physics major? She hates the Science Channel. I've discerned that from the audible yet muted noises she makes when I turn it on. It kind of sounds like the noise a dog makes right after you leave the house without feeding it.

At the same time, once she gets over the shock that I am in fact genious enough to take on Quantum Mechanics (getting ahead of myself a little), don't you wish you had a life partner when you were in college? Come on. Think about it. You didn't REALLY have enough dates in college to make having a steady girlfriend not worth it. I don't care what you tell your friends.

So although a challenge, I'm putting being married in the PLUS column. I'll need the support, and I know she'll give it to me.

(It's going to be a long four years if you keep reading this blog that long, isn't it?)

2.) I have a house.

This would be a bigger plus if I wasn't married. Know what I'm saying?

Seriously though, the mortgage payments are going to keep coming in while I'm studying. We'll have to really batten down to make this work. But again, I know she'll support me though it, so I'm not ultimately worried. I'm interested in seeing how financial aid can help me in this regard. I'll keep you all posted on that.

3.) The Math

I'm not sure if you thirty somethings are aware of this, but apparently they don't teach math the same way anymore. I'm not exactly sure what was wrong with the way you and I do math, but apparently it doesn't work.

So be careful with your checkbook when you hit the college bookstore for the first time. Their math is new and improved, and you might not have as much money as you think.

Not only that, but I haven't used a whole lot of algebra in last, oh, 16 years. I'll be starting almost from scratch. And I'm not even sure how they teach it anymore.

I know they don't carry ones. What happens to the one I wonder? Steven Hawking used to think that they were destroyed, but he's rethought that. Now the ones exist in unverses that still carry them, but they don't exist here. Unless they do. Then we're back to square one.

About this blog

I never finished college back in the day. Instead, I headed out into the work world, and found my own way. Amazingly, it's turned out pretty well. Success without college? You betcha'.

And it's never really bothered me to not have a degree. In fact, at times, I was almost glad I didn't, and swore up and down that when or if I started my own company, I would hire nothing but college drop outs.

See, to me, college was a monumental expense with no reward, and at it's conclusion, most people I knew simply had proven that they can drink a lot, and somehow survive crossing freezing rivers in February in order to join a fraternity. (Yeah, I crossed one too.) Unless someone was studying the sciences, I wasn't real sure what they were getting out of college that real life experience couldn't teach them a lot quicker. And I'm still not sure.

At the same time however, I've had a certain sense of remorse. Not for not finishing college the way I was doing it at the time, but rather for making a poor career choice. Turns out I pretty much hate the business world. It's cutthroat (which is fine), disingenuous (which is not fine), and above all else, very unsatisfying. I don't like making money for other people unless there is a specific end result that can be proven as to have somehow improved the human condition.

Real Estate? Nope.

Wireless sales? Nuh-uh.

I can see people in those industries shifting uncomfortably in their seats as they read this. "No way! We improve the human condition!". No you don't. You change the way we do things sometimes, and help us from time to time, but having worked in both industries, I'm here to tell you they are egomaniacal and self serving. Your product may help us, but YOU don't.

SO although I've been thinking about returning for quite a while, the kicker was watching the Hawking Paradox on TV last night. I've always been fascinated by astronomy and quantum mechanics. And I've been feeling so very empty at work these days. So I thought why not go back? You always thought college was for scientists, right?

So that's what I'm doing. I'm going to ditch the business world and pursue a degree in physics.

I only hope I can stomache sharing the hallways with MBA's.