Future-type stuff

I've got a bunch of future-related stuff on my mind right now. School, marriage, where I'd like to move to for a new job, etc.

Well, first things' first: my last class, Managerial Finance, the one that I hated and loathed and did not expect to get an A in - remember that? Yeah. I got an A. *Big grin* I'm still on the Chancellor's list, and thrilled beyond what I can reasonable express here. That class was hard. With the completion of that class and another before it - Management Accounting - I finally recieved my first professional certificate, for basics of accounting and finance. My first real framed-boast-paper. Again - thrilled. I feel all official, and stuff.

I finally made the call to my school this morning to return to the accelarated, two classes per term, schedule, which will have me graduating mid-November of this year (whooohooooo!!!) I'm still awaiting a call back from my admissions advisor, however, on the break I may or may not take between graduating with my Bachelor's and starting on my Master's degree.

See, there are a few unknowns about that.

I signed an agreement several months ago to go for the Master's program once I have my Bachelor's, and this agreement locked me into the tuition price as it was at that point in time. What this means is that instead of getting whatever the tuition price would normally be at that future date (which would be considerably more, as price raises periodically), I'd instead pay the rate that it was at the time I signed the paper, which was about $28,000. Without that agreement I could be facing a tuition rate of more than $30,000.

This agreement was a good thing, obivously.

However, I have been wanting to take a break between the Bachelor's and the Master's programs, just to get some time to relax, and now with the boy's proposal, we are thinking that such a break would be the prefect time to get married and have our honeymoon. The unknown with this is that I don't know whether or not taking a break between the programs will undo that Master's tuition agreement, so that I'd end up paying the higher, then-current price. Maybe I could take a short break and it woud be ok, maybe not, but if I could, how long could that break be? One month? Two? I'd like to be able take up to five months if needed for wedding preparation, the big day, and the honeymoon, but I don't know if I'll be able to. I should know within the next few days, once my advisor calls me back.

Another unknown surrounding the marriage is that it might affect the amount of finanical aid I'm eligible for when I go for my Master's degree. I spoke with my boss who, being married, was ineligible for grants, and he said that he was still eligible for other aid, so I think it will be ok. I wasn't eligible for grants myself, even unmarried, only the stafford loans. Hopefully I'd still be eligible for those, but if not, the wedding will have to wait another two years until I'm done with school altogether. Well, unless the Bachelor's will land me a job that will pay me enough to make the monthly tuition payments on my own, but I'm not holding my breath for that much of an incredibly amazing pay increase. I could talk to my bank about a loan if I don't qualify for the stafford if I'm married - that's an avenue I haven't looked into yet. I'll wait until I've spoken more about it to the finanical aid department at school to see if they know anything about it.

So this is nothing bad, per se. If I can't take a break - or not as long a break as I'd like - between the Bachelor and Master programs, that's alright. It will suck with no downtime between the two, but at least I'd be done with school completely just that much sooner. And the boy already assured me that he wasn't going anywhere and would be willing to wait until I was done with school to get married if being married would adversely affect my financial aid eligibility. I've got the ring and the promise; that's good enough for now. I want to get married as soon as possible of course, but it's not necessary. Besides, the longer we wait, the more we can save and plan for a very awesome wedding, and maybe a longer honeymoon.

We took a roadtrip up north this past weekend, to take the boy's son back home (he spent his Christmas break with us and the boy's parents) and to visit with some friends. It was a nice little trip, once we got past the worst of the storms that were raging at the time. On our way home on Sunday we stopped to visit with my best friend and her boyfriend, who live in the area the boy and I would like to move to. Taking advantage of being there, we all walked around the downtown area so the boy and I could get a better feel for the place.

I'm hooked. Not only is it a beautiful area, it's also a quickly growing area with good job demand. And we'd be much, much closer to good friends and the boy's son. I'm going to start applying for a new job in that area probably around July or August, and hopefully we'll be moving before the year is over. I can't wait.