Going back to school.

No, not me. My wife is going back to school, though, and so is my best friend. Both of them, it seems, have reached the point in life where one asks "what do I want to do with my life?" and both of them answered "not what I'm doing now, at any rate."

So my wife is headed back to school to be an accountant, instead of a network administrator and process analyst. I think she'll be a lot happier as an accountant, and I think she's going to enjoy school. It'll also fit with the way she wants work to fit into her life -- she doesn't really want to work 40 hours a week all year, she likes the idea of working part-time in some seasons. I think it's a great idea.

My buddy John, on the other hand, is headed back to school to add a Ph. D. on top of his MA. He's been struggling to define himself a bit for the last few years, and I think this will be really good for him. He's really cut out for academic life, and should do well. He may move away to go to school, which would make me very sad, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it. :)

I'm not going through the crisis point yet myself, I think largely because I'm pretty interested in what I am doing now. Work has gotten interesting again, at least partly. There's still far more of the corporate BS about how to convince people who do not understand what I do that it needs to be funded, but I have enough senior folks who get it that I don't have to fight most of those battles.