Where does the time go?

Wow .... it's been almost a year and a half since I last posted a blog

I barely have time to do more than lurk around these days - my gaming has taken a backseat to school for most of the year, and work+school during the summers.  I've only recently completed the last of my course work for a "distance" course I'm enrolled in for the summer, though I still have the exam to write in August.

I completed the college course I was enrolled in way back when I was last blogging, and this past school year I finished the first of two years at university.  Very soon I'll have a four year degree in commerce, with a specialization in accounting.  I can't wait to be done! 

I've been fortunate enough to have had internships over the past two summers with an accounting firm - I'm hoping those turn into an offer of employment for when I'm done school.  A few years after that (and a series of exams later) and I hope to have a professional designation.  All your audits are belong to me!

Lately, Ms. Plato and I have been trying to get out more and see the world outside our four walls.  We've barely been doing more than working or sleeping for the last two years, and it's getting pretty stale.

Have I mentioned that I'm the luckiest guy in the world, in that I have a partner that supports my schooling "addiction"?  Student loans are barely enough to cover tuition and the costs of books, which is pretty shitty especially considering that if I earn "too much" money, they reduce what little they provide.  It's almost like they don't understand that the money they're providing will be paid back .... it's a loan, not a grant.

Basically, I get $12,000 per year, which seems great, until you take off the $6,500, and about $1,000 in text books.  Maybe the rest would be sufficient for a kid out of highschool renting only a room, but we had a life before I went to school and when rent is (now) $750 a month + hydro, plus food, plus the special food we need to feed our cat, plus car insurance, plus everything else people in their thirties have to pay for, well, that money just doesn't go very far now does it?

But we make it work, and soon™ it will be over and we'll both be working full time instead of only one of us working for eight months out of the year.  I can't wait.  I prefer work to school immensely, if only because I prefer to be productive.

University has been quite the adjustment, primarily due to the restrictions on work and our lowered income.  While I college, I was in a program in Ontario called Second Career, which essentially paid for all my school related expenses and my living expenses.  At the time, I was the primary earner in the household, and as Ms. Plato and I weren't electing to be common-law at the time and we split things like rent so my half of rent and expenses was covered through the program.  I treated school like work, and volunteered or tutored in my spare time.  I was also fortunate enough to be on the board of governors in my final year of college, which was a great experience!

I've been lurking around on the site for much of the last year, and I'll likely be lurking for another to concentrate on my school work, but in lurking I've been able to read alot of what others have been going through for the past year.  The thread about looking for work is especially representative of what a number of people have been going through for the past year.  Reading about your struggles, accomplishments and achievements (like Waterborn, awesome work man!) have really helped propel me at times when money was tight and I wondered if sticking through university was really worth it. (spoiler alert: it was!)

So to all those that take the time to share a bit of their lives with the rest of us, thank you.  It's encouraging to see things looking up for members of the site; even though I know very few of you personally, (needz moar Chicago!) it's still nice to hear when things start going well.

And when things aren't going so well, it's just as great to see how a community of people that may never met you or even had the chance to game with you are so quick to offer words of encouragement, or sometimes more.  2old2play is a great bunch of people, ain't it?

I believe I'm contractually obligated by the ToS to end thusly:  Doodi, eat a dick.