Good news today. Mrs. Austin has decided to go back to school!! It's a big day for the Austin Family and we're behind her all the way. She was actually happy to the point of tears when she called to tell me. We're both thinking of going back to school and I'm waiting to hear from an old professor friend in Denver about my chances. Mrs. Austin will be taking classes starting August and the classes she's taking will be reimbursed through her employer. Happy days.

I know my dad went back to school. Just a few years back he graduated with a degree in business. It seems to be the thing, lately. A lot of people, especially in this economy, are taking the opportunity to go back to school and get their degree. I, on the other hand, am not going back to school because I'm looking for a better job, I just want to finish it. It gnaws at me that I went to, and paid for a good chunk of 6 years of state college, but didn't finish because I needed to find work. Turns out there were a lot of evening art and theater classes so I had to let it drop.

But this is great news for the Mrs. She's been wanting to do this for years now, and with her loans from a previous school paid off, there was nothing holding her back except just going to the campus and signing up. I know she'll be worried that she's not spending enough time with me and Lil Miss Austin, but you have to make choices and this, I think, is a good choice. If she gets her physchology degree like she wants, who knows what that will do for her. Plus, all the time she spends at school I can use to play video games. I call this a win win scenario.

I wanted to add that another friend of mine has a new job as well and it's a kick ass job doing graphic design for an insurance company. He gets to play with Illustrator and Photoshop and all other forms of digital goodness on a daily basis. He's really excited to be working with something artistic and electronic. That and Mrs. Austin's recent move to finish school got me wondering what I'm doing with my life. Sure I've got a small ashcan comic due out in August, yeah so I've drawn a picture for Bob Schneider, but that's about it. My legacy is going to be nothing more than some mediocre penciled pieces posted in cyberspace. If I were to die tomorrow, I'd have nothing of note to be remembered by other than my daughter. It's a scary thought, that what you're doing doesn't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, but if you're smart you'll use that as motivation to get off your can and get something done. Write a book, organize a protest, something.

I'm also not very fond of the business I'm in. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate my job, or my boss or my coworkers. (Ok, are they gone now?) What I'm frustrates me is I'm doing something I'd never thought I'd do and I'm frankly not very good at. I do what I can, but since I have no vested interest in my profession other than a biweekly stipend, I can't say with mucho gusto that I'm behind my job, or my company. I just don't care sometimes. I'd rather be making neat graphics for flyers or creating websites for companies or designing characters for video games. But I'm 30 now and I don't have any training in any of those fields, I have self imposed knowledge. Were I to get a job like this, I know enough that I could figure it out in short order, but I'd have to get in the door first. Would you rather hire a student from some graphic art school with a good portfolio that has a degree or someone who's been doing it as a hobby for 10 years with no degree and a very narrow portfolio?

Yeah I don't know either.

Not to be one to burn bridges either, I've got nothing against my job now. Sometimes it's challenging, sometimes it's boring, sometimes I hate coming in, sometimes I don't mind coming in. Never, since I've got into this industry have I woke up and scrambled for the door because I'm just dying to get to work. I'd like to be there some day. I'd like to get a good night's sleep, wake up, and be excited about getting into the office. Maybe not because the job is good, but that I'm suited for the job. LMA's school has a sort of philosophy that they don't teach, they nudge. They find what the child is good at, and they encourage that path as much as possible. I wish there was job placement like that.