Well, getting ready to start my senior year of my Bachelors here and I thought I was getting tired of school.
Throughout the course of this internship at the corporate office of a major bank, it has reinvigorated my desire to stay in school.
I figure...with the economy the way it is, and the fact that it won't truly bottom out until late into 2010 due to many variables (causing this recession/depression to actually be a double dip bottom out) plus the encouragement of my two mentors to stay in school, I'm looking forward to continuing on directly into my Masters or Law School. I haven't firmly decided yet. There aren't many universities near me that offer a Masters in Financial Economics. I'd have to move back east across NC towards Raleigh to attend NC State. Not a great thing uprooting 3 children, a wife, and my little girl due in December.
So that's why I'm considering an MBA or Law School.
Only thing I can think of is find something you can do to "put things in perspective" for you. After getting out of the military, it put into perspective that I wanted to go back and get my education. After getting stressed after 3 years of schooling and striving to maintain as near a perfect 4.0 as I could, the internship was a good "break" for me over the summer. I realize that the day to day grind, at least of that part of banking, is NOT what I wanted.
LOL ... Good thing I realized that now than before I graduate in a year. Good pay isn't the only requirement I'm looking for.
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As far as personal stress...I'd like to smack the VA Representatives that thought up the idea of allowing subcontracted third-party doctors the ability to do our "analysis" for our disability ratings. Due to some guy who spent less than 30 minutes on me, didn't do anything but eye-ball the measurements and walk me through my "check-up", and the fact that he couldn't even type up the report correctly, I get a letter from the VA saying they are considering lowering my disability from 90% to 70%, a loss of $500 per month. (Major hit for someone who has 3 children with one on the way, a wife, and a daughter from a former marriage.)
Good thing is, back in 2004 they tried doing this to me when I requested an increase from 60%. AT that time, they sent me to a subcontractor too who failed at a proper review, it literally took her less than 7 minutes to evalute me. Got a letter back saying we are considering reducing you from 60 to 40%. Took me a year and a half. Had to drive 6 hours to Winston-Salem at that time for an appeals hearing. Went on record with my statement and my wife's. Get a second "proper" evalution that took the doctor 55 minutes to do where he broke out measuring equipment and everything to measure angles. Get a letter from the VA a couple months after that saying that they apologized and found that the first doctor's evalution was truly in error, and that not only were they keeping me at 60% but my injuries HAD in fact gotten worse and they were increasing me to 90%, eligible for 100% unemployability (which I never took the 100% because I wanted the motivation to get out there and attempt to work and do something.)
So ... the positive note I guess is that I've been through the bureaucratic red tape before, so I was more prepared this time. At this evalution, I took my wife and she went in with me and witnessed everything, just in case something like this occurred again.
Funny part. If a vet is over 30% disabled, then 10+10 doesn't equal 20 anymore. They use a chart to determine your pay. Each of my injuries add up to 170%, but I'm only getting paid for 90%. LOL... this doesn't even include the PTSD and Anger issues, and Diabetes incurred due to the time in the military.
My wife keeps reminding me to take my meds and say "wu-sah" and not get stressed and angered over it. Kind of tough some days when you know your children may suffer for it.
Ah well ... Life is full of stupid people getting paid low level government wages and just going through the motions to collect said wages.