A while back I was asked if I would be interested in blogging about the day to day experiences in the life of a family with an MBA student for Duke. I was flattered that they would ask me, a stay-at-home mom that wishes Facebook had spell check on it. After some consideration I decided I shouldn't add another task to my life. I feel stretched a little thin with our current situation and I didn't think it was fair to my kids to add something that would take even more time away from them. I also was worried about what my blog might include. Looking back on some of my posts here I realize I don't exactly paint the prettiest picture for an MBA family. Although this time in our lives is probably the hardest we have ever had (and ever hope to have) it's not all bad. I don't want to scare anyone that is possibly considering pursuing a similar degree.
When Brandon and I agreed that he should go back to school I figured it would be a lot of work. Some late nights, weekends away, and a lot of time on my own. I had no idea to what extent that would be until now. My plan for him to just slide by so that he can just get this degree and nothing more was not on his radar. At first I thought my husband was way more of an over-achiever than I ever realized. He has done exceptional well in all his classes. But as I listen to what he learned over the weekend or what his case study is about each week it became clear that he really does love this stuff. It's not about doing better than the guy sitting next to him (although that's nice), he's learning to do something he is extremely passionate about and make it a career. Isn't that what it is all about?!
People ask me all the time, "Don't you wish you would have done this years ago before you got married or had kids?" Really it took us this long to realize what really interests us. If Brandon would have gone for his masters before now it probably would have been in engineering and he would have just continued to dislike his job. If we would have started before kids, sure, it may have been easier, but I don't I think I would have admired all that Brandon was putting into this. I don't think he would have appreciated my efforts in helping him succeed. Before his first day of school I knew there would be a day somewhere along the line of this program where one or both of us snapped. We would reach a point where one of us hit our limit and would completely take it out on the other. It hasn't happened yet, and now I don't think it ever will. Every night we stand in awe of what the other did to get us through the day and there is no reason to complain. We both know how hard the other works and the sacrifices we are making now are so little compared to the future we are preparing for ourselves and our girls.
So go out and do it. Find what you want to do and don't let anything stop you. It's not going to be easy, what good things in life really are? Like they told us at my Duke weekend, you've got to keep reminding yourself this is a short-term sacrifice for a long-term goal.
No comments:
Post a Comment