What was I thinking?!

If you happen to know me well, you already know that I "occasionally" make rash decisions out of the blue. I happened to read an article today about President Bush planning to cut back on Army Reserve spending, and it made me recall one of those rash decisions that I ALMOST followed through with.

When was that? I was about a year away from finishing college, was working on an art degree, but didn't know what exactly I wanted to do with that. I never had intended just the art to be what I ended up with, and was in the midst of contemplating what else I wanted to stick my foot into.

I had several options. One was accounting, since I figured that was as practical as I could get. I thought that'd let me do art on the side but also help me get by financially. So I started taking accounting classes and found it pretty interesting...but the moment I took an economics class, it TOTALLY went over my head and I knew there was no way I could make myself get interested in that stuff. So, I threw that idea waay out the window.

Another option was special education. I've always had a soft spot for people with disabilities, especially those with developmental disabilities. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I've been repeatedly told from my parents that the doctors had told my parents, that even if I happen to survive as a premature baby, I'd definitely have severe disabilities, including blindness and mental retardation. Well, God must've pulled lots of strings for me, because as far as I'm concerned, I'm pretty sure I'm clear of both.

I went to get my transcript evaluated to see what classes I would need to add that on, and it turned out I'd basically have to redo college, so I didn't think that was worth it. I'd taken a lot of science classes though, so I was told I'd only need a few more classes if I wanted to get a secondary teaching degree in science, but I wanted to do elementary education, so that didn't work out. I did pass some sort of basic test for being a substitute teacher, so if ever wanted to be a sub in California, I could do it...but of course, I don't plan on doing that.

This is the point where my crazy idea came to mind and I suddenly acted on it without much thought. I figured I had tons of students loans from having gone to a private college the first two years and thought "now wouldn't it be great to gain a skill AND have the army pay my loans back for me!" SO, I got sucked into the whole army reserve recruiting process. I went and got my physical with a bunch of other recruits, took some sort of skills test, passed both, waited around to pick an occupation that would allow me to do the "one weekend a month, 2 weeks a year" thing, and couldn't decide between something like "generator mechanic, fast boat operator, and blood bank technician, etc.".....then the computers froze, so I was asked to return the next day to pick and sign papers.

THAT night, I had major second thoughts about the whole thing, since it meant a 6 year commitment. I decided I didn't want to sign on for 6 years and become government property. It's hard to imagine that I'd be in the army reserves now, probably in Iraq, if the computers hadn't crashed that one night. Whew, that sure was a close call. I really don't know what I was thinking. Maybe I wanted to really cut away from my past and totally build a new life. I don't know. I sure am glad I didn't take that route.

Instead, I went up to Portland and got my master's in art therapy. I'm something like 70,000 dollars in debt because of that and college, but it was well worth it. I get to pay student loans every month for the next 25 years....yippee?!