While my escapades into the mind of a plagiarist were fun, they do distract slightly from the overall arch of this academic year.  On August 19th of last year, I started the graduate program.  Since then, I have completed five of the ten courses required for the degree.  I have looked through my course requirements and talked with the various department heads and, if all goes according to plan, I’ll take two courses this semester, two in the spring, and then have one last class in the summer.  I’ll finish with the following degree:

Masters of Science in Engineering in Engineering Management with a minor in Technical Communications

They might have to give me two degrees in order to fit the whole name on there.  Basically, the MSE is offered in things like Electrical Engineering or Mechanical Engineering, but all of that doesn’t really relate to the part of my job that I enjoy doing.  The Engineering Management curriculum is more focused on the work that I do and the things that interest me.  It is a step out of my comfort zone to try for the minor in Technical Communications.  The classes typically require more time, work, and research, but I have found that they are very beneficial.  For instance, if it weren’t for the course that I took this past semester, you guys wouldn’t have had that fun plagiarism story to read.  See, we all win.

At the halfway point, I must admit that this has been a challenging experience.  I haven’t been overwhelmed by the difficulty of the work, I’ve just been much more stressed because of the time commitment that has been required.  Some nights require me to be at school, so I try to make sure that I’m at home with the girls the other nights.  I’ve given up reading (alright, video games) after the girls go to sleep in order to work on work and assignments.  And, I’ve had to devote the better part of a few weekends for some projects and some papers.  Through it all, Kelley has been very supportive and just plain amazing.  Thanks, Babe!  At the end of it all, I should reward you with something cool.  I have some ideas, but most of them involve building a statue of you from cheese.  I’ll keep working on it.

And, you have my word that this is the last time I do something like this.  Until we decide that I need a PhD, but after that, definitely no more degrees.  Now, I might try to become a licensed engineer and have to take the PE exam which would require a lot of studying.  But other than those two things, that’s it.  Unless I find a cool, new hobby.  But other than that…