It has been a whirlwind type of year and I am still having a hard time wrapping my head around everything. Last time I wrote I had just taken the GRE and decided that a history PhD program probably wasn't in my best interest. None of that has changed - everything else? Yep.
Spring semester at U.A.B. proved to be my most difficult term yet. The classes were challenging and a number of outside issues prevented me from doing as well as I should. Around the midpoint of the semester the law firm I worked for announced a merger with a larger firm out of New Orleans. The exact day of the merger? The Saturday before finals week. Getting our systems working together and meeting with the new group took up a lot of my time that should have been used for studying. I ended up with 2 B's and 1 A for the term - still over a 3.0 but my worst term here since I started.
In spite of all of the time I spent on the merger, as soon as it was finished I was let go. Not overly surprising since they never would give me a job description but very disappointing in that they did not even see if they could find a spot for me. So like 10% of the U.S. workforce - I was out of work.
The good news to help offset this was at the same time I was meeting with several professors that run different Engineering PhD programs at U.A.B. Shortly after one of these meetings I received a letter from the school letting me know I had been accepted into the 'Interdisciplinary Engineering' PhD program. Sounds impressive right? My MBA GPA combined with my background and my GRE made me an ideal candidate for the program. Dr. Shih has an idea for me to create a computer program that will merge thousands of different MRI images into one 3-D "super image" that can be used for computerized testing and education. Very challenging project but also very interesting.
I started my final semester at U.A.B in August. Just two classes and one of them is an "online" computer course. For the most part the majority of my grades for these two courses will take the form of large group papers. Not exactly my strong point.
So here I am, it is the end of September, I finish the first part of my journey in about 8 weeks and graduate with a Masters degree that I never thought I would get. I am still unemployed and I am having to think seriously that I will not get a chance to begin the PhD. program I have been accepted to. No one in Birmingham is hiring, the PhD does not pay for the first 2 years and there is no way I can envision staying here unless something drastic changes.
So the road in front of me is just as cloudy as ever. Some bright spots? I have a wife and son who love me, I will soon have a M.B.A., I have a kick butt GRE score. With these I can do just about anything. I just have to find the job that will support us, and then find the school that calls to me and begin the next step in the journey.
