'Tis the New Year!

Ah, yet another year has passed, and it's now 2006! One year closer to 30... scary thought! Also, perhaps even scarier is the fact that my high school reunion will be coming up in a couple of years! Has it really been that long since I was just a nerdy teenager, thinking of nothing but what colleges I wanted to attend, and reading the latest fashion magazines? One of my fondest senior year memories is sitting in my AP Chemistry class, eating rice cakes and reading the latest issue of VOGUE. Gotta love that!

Oh, wait... not much has changed!!

Except now, I've been thinking about graduate school... scary how it's been four years since I have graduated college, and I feel as though I've done absolutely nothing with my life? How can this be? This is definitely a quarter-life crisis at its finest. Yes, I am very happily married to my college sweetheart. Yes, I live in the city I always dreamed about. And yes, I have a decent job in an industry that, as a small-town girl in Norcross, GA, I could only have dreamed about. So what's the problem? I think that I'm not challenged enough...

I'm thinking of B-School... is that scary or what? Why am I considering the program that is usually reserved for engineers who wannabe something else, or i-bankers who just want to further stroke their egos (and maybe something else)... well, there are 3 reasons.

• I need a degree that has a broad range of applications
• I want to take my knowledge and skills from my work experience and develop them further
• I need a Masters program that is part-time

Well, at least I wouldn't fall into the given demographic of the typical MBA student... that is, if I can get into the schools in which I'm interested. Not that I don't think I'm qualified... heck, if nothing else, I do have some mad numchuck skills (kidding!), but there's that insecurity that I feel again... the one I had back in senior year of high school... so in all actuality, what has changed from the 18-year old Jean to the 25-year old?