At Least I Used It A Little...

I was a very enthusiast high-schooler looking forward to living the dream, college. I would get to leave everything I'd always known and start to live a life I imagined would be so much more exciting than anything I had ever experienced before. I looked at several colleges, very fortunately being accepted at all those that I applied to. My choices varied from Massachusetts to Georgia with a couple sprinkled in between. I have never thought about it before, but I didn't even apply anywhere that wasn't on the east coast. I don't remember if that was a conscious decision or not. Ultimately I chose the University of Massachusetts - Amherst. It wasn't really what I wanted, but it was the safe decision, and if you hadn't already noticed, I'm a safe kind of girl. It eventually ended up being a great choice for me. I wanted a place that no one would notice me - check. I wanted someplace that I wouldn't get called on in class - check. I wanted to blend in and that was a guarantee at a school of 40,000+.

After a rocky first year and submitting applications for a transfer school, I ended up staying to see what sophomore year would bring. This decision was largely based on the support and encouragement of a friend I had known from high school who was in the same major as me. She took me under her wing and made the second half of freshman year much easier than the first. I will always be grateful for everything she did for me. Without her influence, my life would very likely have gone in a completely different direction. Whether that direction would have been bad or good, I don't know, but I do know that the path I started along that year became the road to the life I live today. Thanks Jill. You are so missed by so many.

Fast forward to junior year when I finally made a decision on a major. I had started out freshman year as a sports management major, then looked into both history and education, and ultimately ended up in the English Department. Senior year was spent working on the necessary classes for an English degree with a certificate in Technical Writing. It was a perfect degree for me. I learned to write user documentation (ie: manuals, directions, etc.) and make websites using some pretty cool, but now very outdated, computer programs. Ugh, I feel so old just thinking about it. Anyway, I graduated that spring with a job waiting for me at a company near Boston. I was making great money and actually in my field. Awesome.

I used my degree for a total of 10 months. The company I was working for got caught up in the tech crisis and we all were shown the door in various rounds of layoffs. I was pretty pleased with myself, I made the third round.. After that I ended up moving to Connecticut because I didn't have anything else to do and a friend was looking for a roommate. Despite many attempts, I never found work in my field there and became a school secretary, which turned out to be a wonderful blessing in disguise because that job is where I met Roman. And now, I am a stay-at-home mom. No degree required. Unless there is a degree for changing diapers, driving a van and keeping kids alive. I'm pretty sure I've completed the necessary coursework for that one.

I'm very curious to know the path that others have taken. Did you go to college? What is your degree in? Are you still, or were you ever, in your degree related field? Inquiring minds want to know.