Showing posts with label grad school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grad school. Show all posts

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Long Time No See




My last post was back in August or September I believe, and I have good reason for those of you that care :-)

This past year, I did something I have been wanting to do for a long time - go back to school. I decided that enough was enough and I sold my ass to get accepted into grad school at the University of Texas at Austin. I am now a graduate student working on my masters in civil engineering. I am still working at my job as a project manager, still managing my two projects.

Now due to my ass-selling abilities, I also scored a job at the research campus as a research assistant. Three big perks: 1) I am doing research work on the projects I manage at my office; 2)I score some decent UT employee discounts; and 3) my tuition is paid for by the school. Holla!

However, I have encountered a few drawbacks to working two jobs (not like 80 hours a week but over full time) and going to school is that I rarely have time to mope around or do fun stuff like go to the gym. Second drawback is that I am really tired - by Friday I am running out of steam. Third drawback - I am stressed out pretty bad most of the time. The bad thing about working part time at my old job is that everyone expects for me to get shit done like I was working full time. That means I had to learn to be more productive AND I have to get shit done in X amount of hours instead of >40 hours like the good old days. And that's pretty stressful.

However, the good thing is that this doesn't last forever. Finals are around the corner and I will have a good month with no classes. Also, working at the lab has helped me "release" a lot of pent-up stress and anger by breaking stuff and just doing things that I have always wanted to do. Also, I feel much more knowledgeable in my job - when before, as a manager, I learned enough to get by, now I am learning the intricate details and knowing how shit gets done from research to my desk to the boss. I feel like I have more control over my projects.

Well, enough of this ranting for the one person that reads my blog. Now that I finally budged and got internet at the house AND an iPhone, get ready to hear more of me. Sit down, Jason, you can stop cheering now :-)