I have three options in my head that I've been debating since February. I need to make a decision soon. I already filled out the FAFSA for this summer, and for the upcoming school year. I know according to the FAFSA I won't get any student aid; the Hubs and I made too much money when we were both employed. However, since I'm unemployed now, there may be more financial aid options.
Option 1: Go back to school to be a nurse. Cox has a program that would minimize the amount of money paid by me. First, I'd go to school to be a CNA (Certified Nurse Assistant). This is the person that takes vitals, changes sheets, the dirty work equitable to an intern. Cox has a program that will pay for the 8 week training course if I agree to work for them for the next year as a CNA. CNAs make about 25,000/year. Then, I could get my foot in the door to be a Registered Nurse. They offer a program for RNs, where they will pay for a semester of school if I agree to work for them for a semester; they will pay for up to four semesters if I agree to work for them for four semesters. RNs make about 60,000/year. (Which is a helluva lot more than I will make in architecture for several more years!)
Option 2: Go back to school to be a medical lab technician. This is the person who analyzes blood and urine to check for diseases and such. There is minimal, if any patient interaction. The prerequisite courses are similar to RN courses. MLTs make about 35,000/year. This program would be through OTC, but Cox offers a bachelor's degree that would earn me the medical lab technologist designation, who supervise technicians and make about twice as much.
Option 3: Go back to school for my masters in business administration. There are several things I could do with this degree. First, I could own my own firm and know how to make it profitable. Second, when we move back to Cape Girardeau I could open a greenhouse, or bakery, or CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and make any of those options profitable.
It seems so simple in my head to go back for my masters. Most of the classes are offered online. If I got hired back on as an intern I could complete my masters while working an 8-5 job without disrupting work. It is more inline with what I went to school for in the first place. But I'm so intrigued by the human body, its systems and how it works. Nursing classes are mostly in class; if I got hired back on as an intern I would have to choose between the two. It's still early enough in my career that I could make a career change and not commit career suicide. The biggest issue is money. How would I pay for school, regardless of what I went to school for? I'm afraid that even though I'm initially drawn to nursing because of my curiosity about the human body that it's ultimately the money that draws me in. I care about people, don't get me wrong, but I don't like starting out at the bottom of the totem pole in new jobs. However, when I eventually get hired back as an intern I will most likely be at the bottom of the totem pole, in a new office other than my former employer.
Ultimately, though, it comes down to what I want to do with my life. I have a romantic idea of what I want to do with my life. I'm (finally) enjoying this time off of work, enjoying working in the garden everyday and baking bread on a whim, studying at my own pace and wanting to be creative again. I started architecture school with so much creativity in my brain and by third year I was drained of it. I would tackle a new project and be mentally exhausted and not satisfied with the final product. never. satisfied. I miss when I would draw just to draw, and write poetry and songs and short stories. I miss creativity and I don't get it in the architecture office. It's difficult to be creative with a standard detail when it's already drawn and in the detail catalog and when the standard detail is the way it works best, preventing infiltration of water, bugs and critters. Granted, there's no creativity in nursing or lab tech work. I guess I envision work as having standard procedures and protocol, and then for the rest of my life to be creative. Work is mindless and everything else keeps my mind alive.
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