Pencils, Paper, Text Books Oh My!

I am finally into a routine of eating right (love my veggies), working out (kickboxing rocks!), doing my walks (I still hate "the hill from hell"), taking time for myself, and all in all getting ME back on track. My next step is my education. It is now time I get my brain into shape. I cannot stress how important it is to educate yourself. Companies now won't even take a look at you unless you have some college if not a 4 year degree with you continuing on to your masters.

Now I kick myself everyday for not going back and finishing up my degree when I was in my 20's. I always thought that I would pick up where I left off. But now that its time for me to start back up I find myself not wanting the degree and career that I originally chose. 12 years ago I was in school for Nursing. I now find that I don't want to be a nurse anymore. The job doesn't pay for all the hard work that you have to put into it. Your time doesn't equal your value. So I'm in a position to change careers. With that decision my possibilities are endless.

My dilemma is do I stay in the medical field which I know that I am good in or do I try for a field that is completely alien to me, but the value will equal the time put in? If I was looking at this from a purely financial prospective then the latter would apply. With treading new waters comes the uncertainty of can I even do this position.

My husband can be a wise man when he chooses and has told me,  "either do something that you love, or do something that will make you lots of money." Again he is right... I can do something that I love (like healthcare) but my income won't compensate the time put in. I'll enjoy my career and want to get up everyday I just won't get paid for it. Or I can go into the technological field. There are very few women in the tech world and its a field that is very well compensated, but I don't know if I will like it. This is my last chance of switching my career. I'm getting older, not younger. I don't want to switch careers when I'm sixty realizing that its not the path that I wanted in the first place.

There are tons of free education websites that I can trial and error to my hearts content. One such site is www.coursera.org. Here you can take classes (not for credit) from Ivy League colleges like Stamford University, Harvard, Princeton, Michigan State, Penn State.... the list goes on! You get top professors from a credited school and at the end you will earn a certificate that you took the course not for credit. It's all free and open to the public

But I'm not good in math and I know that the tech industry uses math for multiple things. This is where I go to brush up on my skills of math, science, history, even music if I needed to. http://www.khanacademy.org site is also free to the public. My children even use this to brush up on their skills. Its good for adults also who are too embarrassed to go to a classroom. The last thing I need is to deal with some 18 year old who doesn't care that they are in class. Only that mom and dad are paying and are told to go.

So here I go into a new world where things are alien to me. Hopefully I will land into a position that will suit me just fine. Still scary but the risk is hopefully worth it.

Time to hit the book!