How did you end up here?

[eriehiker]

My wife and I had twins. I was sitting in the recliner with one girl on my left arm and another girl on my right. San Jose State University was piloting for-credit online courses with Udemy and I decided that since I was staying up all night anyway, that I would take a SJSU programming course. I ended up working extremely hard and finished half the class before I realized I was getting no sleep. So I quit the class, but learned later that very few actually completed these courses and the program went defunct. This was 2013.

I really kind of struggled internally with being a dad. I am a great dad. My kids are great. My wife is great. However, I am a very curious guy and have traveled a lot. I felt that being stuck at home all the time was completely stifling and depressing. So, by about 2015, the girls were old enough that things were just tough rather than impossible. I started to work on these classes because they were a challenge, created a pathway for a potential alternative career and gave me something ambitious to do while stuck at home.

When Trump was elected president, I decided that instead of becoming angry and following everything bad that was going on, I would just focus on these classes. That is when I picked up the multiple bachelor's and associate's degrees from TESU.

Covid kind of extended everything because lockdown happened when my family would have hit its stride in terms of traveling. I just did a bunch more classes.

My wife and I will retire from teaching at the end of this year. I am using the degrees I earned here to find a new job in Wisconsin. We are moving everyone back to my wife's area. With two pensions, we should be able to live with one job and the family pressures might be less. We'll see.