#schoolish

As soon as the Internet became accessible to me (I was 13), I began earnestly, even obsessively, researching my post-secondary options. I knew more about domestic and international grants and admissions requirements than my career counselor in high school. I could tell you the courses required to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Medieval History at Oxford University, a Masters of Literature in Medieval History from St Andrew's University, and a PhD from Cambridge University, because that was precisely the route that I was going to take. My path, I had thought, was set in stone.

Unfortunately life does not progress according to all of our plans, and instead of curating museum exhibits or lecturing students at a prestigious university, I am employed as a digital marketer with nary a post-graduate credit to my name. Although I would have enjoyed the path I had originally chosen, I make no complaints about where I have ended up. But, at the time of year when my friends and acquaintances are announcing that they have finished their Masters or have been granted their PhD's, I do reflect on the life I had thought I would lead.

I know that I am not finished with my education; I still have hard goals that I wish to achieve, albeit in a different field of study and on a much different timeline. Such is life, though, to make an incredibly detailed plan and then follow a completely different path.