Aug 21 2008
The Carrot In Front Of My Face
To take classes or not to take classes? That is the question.
A couple weeks ago my boss had been talking about my colleague’s recent venture towards another master’s degree. He took full charge of making sure he could get reimbursed the full amount through the company’s policy despite the ambiguity of it all. I have only been on the company’s full time pay roll for a month, but including contract work I’ve been here since April. The policy states that class reimbursement doesn’t kick in until after a year and I expressed my feelings of disappointment to my boss. She said I should look into taking classes anyways and that she’d try to get some strings pulled for me to get the reimbursement despite my short time with the company.
The amount being offered for reimbursement isn’t too much. At most of the local private colleges it’s around a third or a half of the actual price a class would cost. That being said, I could potentially try to truck it over to UMass or some other cheaper school for classes. What would I take, exactly? I’ve always toyed with the idea of what sort of classes I would take in my own leisure. If I am not enrolled in a graduate program, then I could take virtually anything.
Then again, my company, as with most companies, will not pay for classes that have nothing at all to do with the employee’s job. So, that means no literature or philosophy classes for me. But, I could potentially squeeze a business writing class out of the ordeal.
There is also the matter of the scheduling. I feel pretty stretched getting out of work at night and coming home as fast as possible to eat, decompress and then get to writing until whenever I feel like sleeping. Going to class twice a week at least with homework would probably put a bit of a hold on my weekday writing. Then again, I’d be writing for classes and getting different types of practice in.
Either way, the longevity of my stay at my current employer will benefit me to some degree up until the point where I need to take a quantum leap into the unknown and profitable. The time I stay here I need to pursue as many fulfilling exercises of personal growth that present themselves as possible. If I can manage to get a bit more responsibility brought onto my shoulders and maybe get promoted once or twice, along with making blog and news writing clips and taking a class or two, I think my resume will shine above the rest for many of the positions I hope to hold a little later, or more like a year or two from now, in my career.
Sometimes I feel like I need to find a muse. I have lots of inspiration all around me in the people and places I’ve seen, but I need a muse that I’ve heard so many writers have. This will keep me motivated when I get out from a long day at work and am scratching and clawing for some sort of inspiration to write about. Regarding writing an actual book, it’s been too many late nights and early mornings where I’ve sat in front of my screen hoping for the plot, characters and just words in general to come. All I get is …
