With Your Back Or With Your Brains

Many times in my life I have come to realize one consistent truth. I don't know what I'm doing. I had another one of those moments about a week ago...


You see, my Dad would always tell me "There's two ways to earn a living in this world. With your back or with your brains". Simple truth. One thing my father has always been good at teaching. Often he may hide it within a riddle like some ancient Chinese parable. But, always the simple truth.

Well, so far I've chosen the hard route. It always felt like an honest living. You know earning your living by the sweat of your brow sorta thing. Man, have I been stupid. I kinda stumbled into this web design deal. Mostly out of necessity. But, I've found that I really enjoy it. In fact I enjoy it so much I want to do it for a living.

I've reached a point where I know enough to know that I don't know enough. If that makes any sense. I can't feasibly think I can take my little graphics company any further without first furthering my education. I've been poking around online at local schools that have web design programs. And as of right now I have an appointment with ITT Tech scheduled for Monday morning. I say "as of right now" because I'm considering canceling it.After talking with my friend Chris today, I think I should be looking at a better school. ITT Tech isn't regionally accredited. So, if further down the road I wanted to pursue a Masters somewhere else. I'd be screwed. Chris works in the field and has been a great friend of mine for years. He made a few other points that has made me reconsider that I won't go into right now. But, I think he's right.

I need to do something. We want more children someday soon. At least one more. And I need to be able to support my family. I need to be able to afford a college education for my children. So, they don't make the same mistakes I made. So, they don't have to earn their living by the sweat of their brow(s). I'm not going to last much longer working like this. I think about that every day I'm at work. What would we do if I slipped off this ladder and broke my leg? Or something worse. We live paycheck to paycheck. Taking a three day weekend involves three weeks worth of budgeting sometimes.

I'm still looking into schools right now. I have no idea where to start looking for grants and loans. I know there's got to be at least a few government grants I would qualify for. Cost is a really big issue. So, I need all the grants and free money I can find. The less student loans that need payed back the better.