From my eyes…

There are things in life that I’ve done that I’m proud of. There are some that I’m not. And many that I an nether proud nor ashamed to have in my past.
One of the neutral things in my life was earning my Master’s degree. While I was in school, I really didn’t think anything more of it than being able to become a teacher. My original degree is in Sociology and did not qualify me to be a teacher. When I researched my options, staying in school and earning my graduate degree along side my teacher certification seemed that best option in regards to time and money.
Since I’ve graduated, I’ve found myself feeling pleased that I have this degree. It allows me so many wonderful things that I never had thought of previously. It allows me to fall into a higher pay bracket (slight as it may be) for public teaching salaries. If my district were ever to cut back teachers, they follow a list of senority and also consider teachers with higher education. It allowed me to be a supervisor at a second job (which I now do online and they don’t have that position, but in AZ I was sup. and made more moola because of it).
Having a Master’s degree also opens up the opportunity to work in colleges! It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and now with 7 years in the field, I can finally apply for some of these professor positions. I still love my job, but I think it would be great to teach a college class or two in the evenings while I can. And it would be fantastic if I could do that when we start a family and can be home during the day, and Mike home at night (no daycare would be fab!).
And this week, while looking up some of these positions that are open, I clicked on the benefits package for a nearby university. I was excited to be reminded that children of college professors can go to college for free (spouses too)! It is a new goal of mine to make sure that I have enough time in as a faculty member to ensure that my children have the oppotunity for a free education. It made me beam from the inside out last week. I never thought Mike and I would be able to help much with college. I’m so honored to be able to provide this for my kids (assuming sometime in the next 17 years I can get hired on somewhere ;))! It cost a lot of money and took its toll on me at times, but graduate school has proven time and time again to be worth it.