Oh boy, it's 2020

It's 2020 and I'm still not graduated.

It's also been almost 2 years since I posted here. Oops.
I also wrote a couple pages about what I was up to and then never posted it. Double oops.

Regardless, I'm still alive and kicking. Although I'm moving at a snails' pace, I'm getting closer and closer to finishing my Network Engineering degree, but jumping between temp jobs, combined with terrible spending habits, have slowed me down. Not to mention that the classes I need are really spread apart. Right now I'm signed up for two classes this upcoming quarter, which is gonna followed by three classes, each separated by a quarter. Basically, I'm a year away from graduating with 5 classes left. Definitely not ideal, but it's what I've got to work with.

However, I definitely don't regret going into networking. It's made for an interesting hobby and has got me some interesting places. The end goal, however, isn't graduating. The real goal is getting a steady job. And who knows how long that'll take!

Anyway, I mentioned I wrote up some stuff a year ago and never posted it. Here's all that I wrote:
______________________________________

It's been a bit over a year since my last post, so here's the latest on what's happening.

Since I know you've all been dying to know how the Holo Server is progressed, I've got some good news. The Holo Server has been up and running strong for about a year now and has grown from what used to be a hobby to a career path. There's a lot to cover, so I'll start from the beginning of 2017.

Here's the opening setting: I've been working as a custodian for 10 months. It's not a bad job. In fact, it's probably the best job I've had thus far. Good hours, flexible schedule and amazing pay. Looking back, I wish I could kick myself for not staying longer. But they say hindsight is 20/20, so I don't beat myself up over it. While logically the job was good, I was dealing with quite a lot of personal and emotional problems during that time, enough to have an effect on how much I was enjoying work. A lot of the time I was working, I was also thinking. My thoughts would bounce around, which was both good and bad for me. I'm a heavy day dreamer, but with my unstable emotional self, it often took a toll on me.

Throughout all this, one of the questions that kept popping into my head was, "What do I want to do for a career?" Most of my life I knew I'd eventually go into something in the tech field, but I never knew exactly where. I highly suspected something in film would be my target, perhaps post-production as a VFX artist or a basic editor. I'd always been interested in film, so why not make it my lifestyle?

As fun as film was (and is), some doubts lurked in my mind. One problem I always had with hobbies of mine was burnout. I'd get into an activity hardcore for a while, then relapse and have little to no interested in whatever I was doing for quite a while. If I was going to make film a career, I couldn't afford to have that happen. Especially with the difficulties that come with being in the art field. I wanted to do what I did for a living, not on the side while working at a coffee shop.

If I wasn't going to choose a career in film, then what? I already had an idea of where else I could go. And if whoever's reading this knows me well, then you probably have a general idea as well. As a tech person, I love computers. I use them night and day. At any given point, the number of computers, phones, tablets, and other CPU-centric devices were more than you could count on your fingers. Could this be foreshadowing a career path? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Some questions about an IT career rose up. What's to say I won't simply burn out on IT like I would with film? What's to say I won't make it partway into a job and think, "There's no way I can do this for a career." A legitimate concern, but some major differences between film and IT stood out to me. The first being the glaring contrast between a creative fueled career and a mathematical career. Film, while it does have quite a bit of math to it, is mainly powered by one's creativity, which I considered to by my fuel for film. And when that fuel ran dry, so did my passion for it. IT, on the other hand, it a much more scientific career. If I ran out of creativity for it, it doesn't limit too much of what I can do. After all, computers run on math and science. That doesn't mean there's not creativity involved. One could argue that it's needed just as much as math. However, a lack of creativity wouldn't stop things from getting done.

With that decided, I looked around for potential IT degrees I could go after. I had initially looked at universities where I could go for a BA, someplace like WSU, PSU or somewhere similar. Naturally, money is a bit of an issue. But on top of that, I found I could get some certificates and an AA from Clark College in Computer Support. All at a community college level price? Sounds like a deal to me. With that, I quit my custodian job and began my second adventure at Clark College.

Fast forward two quarters, I realized Computer Support is not the degree I want.

During this time, I began construction on the Holo Server, which I have a couple previous posts about. It initially started as a way to store a bunch of data. However, after realizing I was way over my head, I powered down the server and put it into indefinite stasis. I was dealing with things I didn't understand and burned out fast. It turns out that creativity is important even in the IT field. Additionally, I was questioning my degree. I wasn't going as in-depth as I wanted in my classes. I wanted to learn the deep details about Windows Server and Linux, not just consumer basics. I wanted to know how to remotely control hundreds of computers at once, as well as learn how to best defend them all from potential threats.

After a bit of digging, lo and behold, I discovered the Network Technologies degree. Expertise in Cisco/Microsoft Systems; router and switch experience; potential hacking experience? Count me in. I changed my degree and signed up for some courses. 

________________________________________

I think I stopped writing there, told myself to continue another time, then never finished it. To wrap up what I left out, I started on Network Technologies. It's a decision I don't regret. I've learned a lot and met some really interesting people in the field that have helped me move forward. The experience also landed me a summer internship with my local city hall, which was an absolutely fantastic experience. I learned more in those two months that I did in a quarter at college. It went so well, in fact, that I was temporarily hired back for a technology project at the local library, which was also a great experience. If I can get a full time job like that, it'd be more than I hoped for.

As of right now, It's January 2nd of 2020. Looking back at 2010, I thought I'd be way farther in life than I am now. While a lot of me has changed in those 10 years, a part of me still has yet to move on from high school. I'm figured I would've moved on from there since I graduated years ago, but some things never change.

Anyway, I'm still alive. I'm still kicking. And I'm still trying. As always, I'd like to say I'll post again soon. But let's be real. It'll probably be a year at minimum.