The Best Laid Plans...

OK...seriously...can we please make a life plan and stick with it?  Geez.

Apparently I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, so my life plan keeps changing a bit.  However, I think we might finally have a winner.  Seriously.  I mean it this time.  :-)

Let's turn the clock back about a year and a half ago or so.  Barrett and I aren't going to be in Charlotte forever.  We'd eventually like to be closer to family...closer to the beach.  So, we talked about it a little a decided we'd probably be in Charlotte another 3 years or so.  OK.  Great!  Here's the issue...I love my job.  It is lovely.  But...it's a hard job to get.  The positions are few and far between & to be honest, I'm not sure that I'd want to start over again, from scratch, at another hospital. My bachelor's is pretty specific.  I got my BS in Child Life....wonderful for my profession....not so wonderful if I want to switch careers.  Yes...there are other things I could do with my degree.  I could teach preschool or be an early interventionist.  Do I want to do those things?  Nope.  No way.  So, we needed a back up plan.  Hmmm....what would be a good career change?  Something that doesn't take too terribly long to complete a degree/certification in; a job that is easy to find and easy to get; a job with good pay...good hours.  What did we come up with?  Dental Hygiene.  It was perfect really.  In two years, I could complete my degree while still working part time at the hospital.  There are dentist offices in Every Town USA, and I thought I'd be a good sell at a pediatric office because of my background.  The pay is really great, and you can't beat the hours.  Have you ever tried to make a dentist appointment on a Friday??  Good luck.  On top of all that, once upon a time (like back in 2002 when I started college and was young, fresh, and excited about the possibilites of the future) I thought about going to dental school.  I even started out as a Biology major....but realized I hated science too much to study it for eight years.  So, no dice there. 

The only real obstacle in this "go be a hygienist" plan was that we'd have to sell our house and probably rent a place in Charlotte for a couple of years to bring our expenses down enough that it would be OK for me to work part time.  I started taking classes last spring...just one at a time...to knock out a few classes that I was able to take without being in the program.  Good plan right?  Well, you know what they say about plans....

Here's where the life plan change comes in.  We can't sell our house.  At least not anytime in the near future.  Apparently, there were two foreclosures in our neighborhood that recently sold.  So, the comps in the neighborhood were WAY lower than what we'd put our house on the market for.  WAY lower.  We're talking about $60,000 lower.  Yes, that's 4 zeros.  Good times.  So, it is not fiscally responsible/possible for me to go to work part time anytime soon. I refuse to be stressed out about money or paying bills...it's just not worth it to me.  Plus, if we want to go to the beach or take a vacation...I want to be able to do it!

Besides...if we're not selling our house anytime soon...then we're not leaving Charlotte anytime soon either.  If we're not leaving Charlotte, there's no point in leaving my job.  I love my job.  It's fun and rewarding...I pretty much make my own schedule and get lots of time off.  And, I love the people I work with.  Not everyone can say that and I think it says a lot.  Besides, it's not like being a dental hygienist was my life long dream.  It's not something I need to check off my bucket list or something that I'll be sad if I never do.  It was just a backup plan.

OK, so we're not moving and I'm not going to school for dental hygiene.  What am I doing now?  Applying to Grad School:-)  More on that in another post...

First up....GRE on June 20.  Good times.