VERY big news

I feel really bad! Yesterday I posted some huge huge news on my spark blog to share with all my spark friends, but I didn't post it here. Part of me didn't want to make the news SO public, even though a lot of people already know. But then my friend Heather posted a reference on her blog to me announcing this big news, and I had a lot of visitors come over from her site - to a blog about stress but not a happy blog with my good news!

So I have kindly asked Heather to re-reference this news and decided to put up a short announcement of my news.

I'm going back to school to be a Registered Dietician!

For those of you who don't know, I have two bachelors degrees right now in Finance and Economics. I love both of these subjects SO much, but I don't really like the application of them in real life. Sure, I would love to go work for a hedge fund or the Federal Reserve, but that's just not something I'd be able to do and still balance my personal life. In addition, the office scene isn't for me. I like human interaction and making my own schedule and being on my feet. I had been playing around with the idea of going to Culinary School months ago, but decided I don't want to be a chef. Then I realized that being a Registered Dietician is even better because I can help people every single day make healthy choices in their lives and I can go above and beyond what the typical RDs do and SHOW people how to prepare delicious, quick and healthy meals. At some point I'd love to have cooking seminars or classes for patients to come in and all of us cook together. I'm very excited about it! Plus the fact that becoming a RD is no easy task appealed to me even more, as it's a prestigious occupation that not many people follow or achieve. I love a good challenge, so sign me up!

Here's how it will work. I'll take a few of my basics at night/online starting in January while I'm still working. At some point in the summer I'll have to take a pretty serious chemistry class that I HAVE to take in the summer and I HAVE to probably take during the day, as there will probably only be one section offered. At that point, I'll quit my job and go back full time to school. I imagine I will wait tables for income like I did my first time in Ugrad. I will finish my third bachelor's degree in Spring/Summer 2011 and start a Dietetic internship/combined Master's program in Fall 2011. I'll graduate from that in Spring 2013 with my Master's degree and be eligible to sit for the RD exam. From there, who knows!

I'm realllly excited. I'm reallllly nervous. But I really feel confident in my decision and I've weighed all the options, calculated everything and I know I can do this. I'm a little nervous about being a poor college kid again with crappy school health insurance, but it's only 3 years and I can do anything for 3 years. (well.. I can do this for 3 years). I'm super excited to be roughly 27 and have my masters already done! I wasn't planning to go back for my MBA until I was in my 30s and I could never really figure out how that would work, but I think that's because the MBA probably wasn't for me. This is do-able, I'm willing to sacrifice for it and I've shown myself how much I really want to be a RD.

I got accepted to the undergrad program yesterday, so that's why all of this kind of leaked out over the past few days. I'm really not looking forward to all the stress next semester with 12 hours of school and 40 hours of work, but I know I can do it!