(Journal)

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Wednesday November 28, 2007
12:32 a.m.

1. Traffic was awful tonight. It took me two and a half hours to get to April’s tonight, and I got photographed running a red light. I don’t know how much those tickets are or if I’ll have to go to traffic school, but either way it sucks. She’s going to drive here on weeknights from now on.

2. Started talking about grad schools tonight, trying to work out a plan. Then we got to talking about my big ideas, and I went over the business stuff and the fall of the American Empire stuff, but not the definition of God. I realize that I really do need to get into an academic, intellectual environment that will foster and encourage these ideas, that will push my development further. I really would prefer a physical classroom setting rather than online, but at this point I’ll take what I can get. As for particular schools, Stanford is really the only one that stands out; but of course it’s a ways away and would be a tough choice. I think I need to focus on deciding which degree to get, whether a regular/traditional MBA or a MOL. The Org Leadership could possibly prepare me well enough for a beginning career in consultancy. The MBA would be more for financial analyst jobs, etc. I would rather be a consultant focused on org dev than another number pusher again. I will start studying this week for the GRE and the GMAT. April also wants to study for the GRE.

Hopefully I’ll start my Masters degree by the Fall of 2008. I could conceivably finish a Doctorate in the Spring of 2012; I would be 32. That itself isn’t bad.
April says that she has probably already missed the deadlines for the Fall of 2008, so she’d be looking at Fall 2009. That means that our time in grad school would overlap between one year and three. If we both started in the Fall, it would overlap for four years (unless I paused at Masters, which would mean a one or two year overlap). Full-time Graduate School, at least part time work, along with whatever else is happening in life is a lot to juggle alone; with a partner, it’s a lot harder. We would not get as much time together. Unless we lived together, and either way the support is there. There are two main questions: 1) what if one (or, god forbid, both) go into programs that are not in SoCal? and 2) how could we afford both of us going to school full-time but only working part-time? No real answers, other than that there would be some difficult choices made. I think she’d be amenable to moving away, either to Stanford with me or somewhere else for her (though to be honest, I’m not sure that I’d follow; it would seriously depend on how we were doing, and how good an opportunity it was). We also threw in family planning into the mix, as if it wasn’t intimidating enough. She’d like to start a family around 30 or early 30’s, which wouldn’t be bad timing necessarily. It would give us both time to get our Doctorate’s. But we would be saddled with School Loan Debt and would not be able to buy a house/condo/anything. I just don’t understand how people do it. All in all, it was a very good conversation. As intimidated as I am by it all, I feel good about exploring it all with her.