Sometimes in life you have to do crazy things...and sometimes you have to think twice

When I earned my master's degree from West Virginia University two years ago, I made a solemn vow that I would never again be a college student.

While I am immensely proud of my M.S. in Integrated Marketing Communications, it was a struggle to get there. Anyone who has ever worked full time while going to graduate school and trying to maintain some semblance of a life will tell you it's a challenging and exhausting business.

So imagine my surprise when I recently found myself on the phone with an admissions representative from the University of Kansas inquiring about their online MBA program. 

And when I came this close to applying.

It has only been 27 months since I finished my capstone project at West Virginia and collapsed in a tired and emotionally drained heap. Granted, some of those drained emotions stemmed from losing my mother and mother-in-law in a span of 18 days that summer of 2020, but school still had an awful lot to do with it.

My reasons for considering an MBA as I near the ripe old age of 53 were many, including:

• I love learning. I really do. As physically and mentally draining as an MBA program would be, I embrace the thought of becoming more well-versed in finance, accounting, statistics, management, ethics, etc.
  
  
• I've never been formally trained in business. My undergraduate degree was in English and History, and I really only entered the world of corporate/business communications in 1999. I've learned a lot since then, but an advanced business education would likely do wonders for me professionally.
  
  
• I'm reading a book by my favorite health expert, Dr. Mike Roizen of The Cleveland Clinic, called "The Great Age Reboot." The book's premise is that we are right on the verge of incredible medical breakthroughs that are likely to extend our lives significantly, i.e., in many cases well into our 100s.

To that last point, I've always hoped I would live a relatively healthy 85-90 years then fade away quickly and quietly. And that may end up being the case. But given recent advances in gene therapy and treatment of what were formerly fatal chronic diseases, there's a possibility I'm only halfway through my time on this mortal coil. Which means I may need 30 or more years' worth of savings once I retire. Which in turn means I may need to work longer than I realize.

And if I have to work into my 70s, I'm going to need all of the knowledge and professional development I can get. Thus the notion of getting a second master's degree in the form of an MBA.

Materion Corporation, my employer, has a generous tuition reimbursement benefit. And Kansas' online MBA program is not only highly rated but also highly convenient with its asynchronous classes, eight-week terms and willingness to allow students to take semesters off.

I could probably do the whole thing in about 3 1/2 years.

But ultimately I chose against it. I'm still relatively new in my job, and while it has been an absolute dream so far, there's a lot of mental effort that goes into doing it well. And my side hustle of sports PA announcing – which is more of a hobby than a "side hustle," really – gets more time consuming with each passing year.

Then there's the matter of spending time with my wife of 30 years. Not so long ago, we were a household of seven people, with all of the attendant chaos and effort. Now it's just Terry, our youngest child Jack, and me. And in a few years, it will just be Terry and me.

I hitched my wagon to the Terry Train decades ago, and it remains the best decision I ever made. It's a connection that demands time and attention, both of which would likely suffer if I pursued that MBA, even if only for a few years.

All of which is to say I'm fine with the life I'm living right now, thank you very much. I can always read books, attend webinars and pursue other avenues to gain business knowledge.

Over the years I have jumped feet first into a wide range of personal and professional experiences, and I don't regret any of them. Sometimes we benefit most from saying "yes" to the seemingly improbable, or even the impossible.

But other times we have to consider the risk-benefit ratio and whether it's worth getting into something over our heads. In this case, I've decided the status quo is best, and it's a decision I imagine will be permanent when it comes to getting an MBA.

Of course, two years ago I thought my heartfelt "never again" in regard to grad school was also permanent, so who knows?

Sometimes crazy is good. And sometimes crazy is...well, crazy.

This is not the post where I inspire you to achieve your life goals

Actually it's not really a depressing post today as far as you're concerned. But it sort of is for me.

Here's my problem:

After graduating from John Carroll University in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in English and history, I stopped going to school. My dad told me I should stick it out and get a Master's degree, but I was tired of working full time AND attending college full time, which I had spent the previous couple of years doing.

So I decided a B.A. was good enough and I stopped there. At the time I was a sports writer at The News-Herald in Willoughby, Ohio, and my career path was pretty well laid out for me: Work my way up the journalistic ladder and eventually become a beat writer covering a Cleveland professional sports team.

It was that simple. That was my goal, and one certainly didn't need a Master's degree to get there.

So like I said, I stopped the whole school thing. And I kept on sports writing for four more years, at which point I realized three things:

• Sports happen at night, and it's difficult to raise a family and participate in kids' activities when you have to be at work every evening.
• You're never exactly going to be independently wealthy as a sports writer.
• Eventually the industry was going to change, and there was no guarantee of long-term job security in sports writing (20 years later, it turns out I was actually right about this one)

So I moved away from sports writing and got into technical writing, then trade journalism, and eventually marketing and public relations.

And now, two decades down the line, I desperately wish I had a Master's degree.

Specifically, I'd like a Master's of Business Administration (MBA) to help make up for the fact that I never studied business in any formal way.

And because obtaining a graduate degree would be extremely personally satisfying to me.

Happily, my employer has an excellent tuition reimbursement plan. Probably the best one I've come across. I almost wouldn't have to pay a dime for an MBA.

But what my employer can't give me, what I can't even give myself, is time.

And time, you see, is the problem here.

I'm barely two months into my job, but already I can see that it's always going to be fairly time-consuming. I enjoy and appreciate the position, don't get me wrong. But things aren't ever really going to calm down when it comes to the day-to-day chaos.

Even if you only take one MBA course per semester, you still need considerable time to attend class, study, get through your reading and homework, work on group projects, etc.

In addition to having a crazy job, I also have a wife and five kids. They deserve a significant amount of my time and attention, and I want to give it to them.

The math just doesn't work out.

If I'm getting anything close to the proper amount of sleep, exercising, doing my job well, and staying closely connected with my family, that pretty well accounts for a 24-hour day right there.

Unless we figure out a way to move to 28-hour days, I'm in trouble here.

Yet many people at work are encouraging me to go for it and get after that MBA. Which is nice, but none of them has offered me that gift of time. Nor do many really seem to understand the stage of life I'm in.

So it appears I'm stuck.

The obvious solution - the only solution, I suppose - is to set this particular goal aside and come back to it someday when the kids are older.

And I may just go that route. But I could really use the knowledge and experience you gain in an MBA program in the next few years. It will still be personally satisfying if I get the degree in my 50s, but I feel like it won't help me as much professionally if I wait that long.

So....yeah.

At this point I invite you to do one of three things:

(a) Tell me to suck it up and quit whining about my first-world problems, something with which I can't disagree.

(b) Tell me how you personally overcame similar obstacles and got a degree or achieved some other life goal, thus inspiring me to get out there and reach for the stars or whatever.

(c) Ignore this post completely and move on with your day, which honestly is probably the approach I would take if I were you.

Because, really, who has the time for that?

(NOTE: Since I wrote this, I came across an excellent post from my friend, former colleague and blogger extraordinaire Tara Pringle Jefferson with practical tips on balancing work, school and family. So it CAN be done. Hopefully one doesn't need to be as awesome as Tara to pull it off, though...)