Been 2(00)4
On April 3, 2010, at 3:15pm, I turn exactly 30 years old. This post
is part of a very ambitious effort to share each of the last 10 years.
Thanks to Mike and his recap of the
2000's for the inspiration.
By 2004, my days and nights were packed with 40 hours of work, another 20 for school, and socializing with some friends in the grad program when I could. One of the strange aspects of the very obscure graduate program at Ithaca was that of the 30 or so students enrolled, about a third were American and the rest international: Greece, France, Norway, Bulgaria, Taiwan, China, India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia. That worldliness of the overall experience added a lot of value to what could have been a very dry study in corporate communications.
That spring marked two years at my job. It was still enjoyable even if it wasn't a great fit. More importantly, I was looking at a longer graduate experience than I had hoped, being on the part-time track. What most students would do in 1.5-2 years full-time, I was looking at about 3 years part-time, with the last semester or two becoming very taxing between work and an in-depth senior capstone project. So I flipped it, making the second year of school full-time, and turning my full-time job into a part-time one.
Like the year before it, 2004 was also fairly unremarkable. I started dating a girl in the fall. Between my PC and my Xbox, I got back into gaming again like I did when I was a teenager. By the years end, with only one full-time semester left in graduate school, there was another crossroads on my horizon. After what would be seven years in Ithaca come graduation in May, one thing I knew for sure was that it was time to go. All of my closer friends from the grad program graduated that December after only three semesters and a summer and only one was staying in town. Beyond the idea of leaving, I had zero clue what to do my life. I was itchy, but I didn't know what I was itchy for.
By 2004, my days and nights were packed with 40 hours of work, another 20 for school, and socializing with some friends in the grad program when I could. One of the strange aspects of the very obscure graduate program at Ithaca was that of the 30 or so students enrolled, about a third were American and the rest international: Greece, France, Norway, Bulgaria, Taiwan, China, India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia. That worldliness of the overall experience added a lot of value to what could have been a very dry study in corporate communications.
That spring marked two years at my job. It was still enjoyable even if it wasn't a great fit. More importantly, I was looking at a longer graduate experience than I had hoped, being on the part-time track. What most students would do in 1.5-2 years full-time, I was looking at about 3 years part-time, with the last semester or two becoming very taxing between work and an in-depth senior capstone project. So I flipped it, making the second year of school full-time, and turning my full-time job into a part-time one.
Like the year before it, 2004 was also fairly unremarkable. I started dating a girl in the fall. Between my PC and my Xbox, I got back into gaming again like I did when I was a teenager. By the years end, with only one full-time semester left in graduate school, there was another crossroads on my horizon. After what would be seven years in Ithaca come graduation in May, one thing I knew for sure was that it was time to go. All of my closer friends from the grad program graduated that December after only three semesters and a summer and only one was staying in town. Beyond the idea of leaving, I had zero clue what to do my life. I was itchy, but I didn't know what I was itchy for.