So, I've finally achieved a big personal milestone, accomplishing and receiving my first IT degree in network administration and security. It's not a big deal in the larger scheme of things; by many opinions industry certifications are worth more. However, for me personally, this was a big leap over my own Grand Canyon.

Since getting put in charge of a migration into an enterprise system from where my regular employer was, I've had to crash course learn the ins and outs of IT at night, through a ton of classes as well as personal practice. It's been a long road, basically about 4 years of stitching together a tech education as well as learning by trial and error. It's also been a challenge while trying to manage two jobs, a growing family, the loss of life balance and more various challenges here and there. Some days, I had to step backward and retrench, recalculating how I was going to get to my re-training goals. Other days, I leapt forward dramatically and found myself literally in a "new land," having to learn a new language and way of getting things done. In all of it, I've also learned a tremendous amount of flexibility needed for today's tech, which was very different world from the traditional software-central network approach I originally learned when starting my career life. 

Of course, the question I get from everyone is, how are you going to find a tech job now, at this point your life? Well, I'm not an idiot. There's a lot of age discrimination in the industry, no doubt. But until like a kid coming out of college, I'm also not desperate for a paycheck either. I have a job, and a good career, I just want to go further. So, I actually have a lot more flexibility to take on side projects, volunteer, and get involved in new startup stuff far more than younger people. Even when retired, I'll still have a safety net, so I can play around with esoteric stuff where many would pass up wanting a more "stable" income position grinding their early years again in a body count mill.

I don't expect to be the next Bill Gates, by any means. In fact, if I find a comfy cloud network admin position to do part-time, that's a big win in my book. Plus, I can explore work in a lot of international fields, again not being limited to just domestic work or companies. So, the horizon for me is pretty wide open. I just have to keep my skills and relevancy up. That can get costly without a sizable income flow to pay for it. Last I checked, IT relevancy education was costing some something in the neighborhood of $10K a year to keep, but I think that's mainly more in the programming side of things. 

Anyways, the point of all this is, don't stop learning, and don't let anyone tell you what you're doing now you're trapped in for the rest of your life. If you want to get out, do it. Find a way, train yourself, and get out. That's what I'm doing.