Contrary to Popular Belief...

By thePatrick

I'm alive!

So, this blog post will be a long, drawn out post to explain not really where I've been, but where I'm going to be and why. However, to explain where I'm going to be, I have to explain where I was planning on being.

Make sense? Good.

So, last anyone heard, I was applying to Graduate School. I applied to four schools: Indiana University, SUNY-Albany, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and University of Arizona. Through sheer luck and determination (and awesome letters from the professors who wrote on my behalf) I was accepted to all four schools. After talking about it with my wife, we determined that Indiana was the best place for us to go.

And we were going to go, too.

All we had to do was sell our house. We put it on the market in March. However, still no signs of selling. Bummer. But that's not the only reason that we're not going.

You see, I work at the library on campus at Utah State University. Which means I get benefits. And around April, we found out that we were going to be having another baby. This baby is due in January. So, since I have awesome benefits, we called up Indiana University and deferred school for a year.

But that's not all.

See, I was going to be in a dual Master's program and receiving a History M.A. and a Master's in Library Science. It is a three year program. Plus we were going to take a year off, so I would be done in four years.

But then, one day early this month, I was riding the bus to work and thinking. You see, Utah State doesn't have a Library Science program, but they do have a History program. And remember how I mentioned that I work for the university? Well, not only do I get health benefits for the family, but they offer half-price tuition. Which I wasn't able to take advantage of during my undergraduate years.

So, I emailed back and forth between the Graduate School and the History Department's Grad Studies director, rushed an application, got in touch with those professors who wrote letters for me in the past (no small accomplishment. One is still at USU, one is teaching at the University of Pittsburgh, and one is starting at George Mason University in Virginia), and applied.

Begging a million different people, emailing and phoning back and forth, it all ended in a new situation. Beginning Monday, I will be an enrolled Graduate Student in the History program here at USU. Amazing how plans can change.

So, we still haven't sold our place. We're not moving to Indiana. But I am going to school. We are having another baby. And we get to stay around friends and family. So if you all would take a moment and pray for my wife's sanity while dealing with a two year old, being pregnant/having a baby, and having a husband in Grad school.

Oh, and keep on keepin' on.