(This is incredibly long, sorry!)

Next week I start school with the goal of getting my MBA in Business! (Specialty is pending)

I am so excited as it is one of my personal dream to get a degree. However it was my life's journey that chosen my major.

Some of you might remember or not but I have wanted to become an Occupational Therapist for many years and was accepted by a University for the program 3 times. I still get chills when I walk by the OT department in the hospitals or on campus and the like. This is my dream job!

So how did I get from having a goal to become an OT into one who is pursuing a Business degree?


To make a long story short, I have been in and out of school for 9 years and completing all the general courses, got an AS in natural science, almost completed an art major in graphic designs (yes, changes of field switching is one of my quirks) the only thing to take to get my degree is a specific field.

I never knew about OT until I moved to California 9 years ago. That field is the perfect match of my combination of past education in art, science, and working experiences with people who have variety of disabilities.

I was on a roll into this program and due to my unfortunate situation of entering into a marriage that was doomed for 5 years of domestic violence, depressions which resulted in a divorce I was happily to take but ended up with 65K debts. I had no job and needed to make money to survive and pay off the debts.

I landed a job through a high tech company as entry level data processor via network of a friend and got a position through an Agency that services the adults with disabilities. I worked roughly 80 hours a week to make ends meet and school was out of the picture.

It took me a good 4ish years after hard work and dedication to paying off the debts, empowering myself to building myself to be confident in myself and being able to smell the roses again. I also married prince charming.

Now things are settled and I owe a lot of my stability through those years to my job in HR for a high tech company that I am forever grateful. They believed in me and were flexible with me. I had highs and lows and severe depressions from those years which often would not be tolerated by many employers.

I grew up believing that I could never work in an "office" and here I am moving up and doing many challenging things in HR! I no longer do the data entry work but now doing reporting and programs related work. I learned that I am good at this and do want to give back to my employer. I now have 7 years of experiences and going to school in business will solidify my career, provide growth on the job and help land me another job in the case of lay-offs.

I will be moving up from my current position and not having to start over from square one! If you listen, life can give you good surprises.

Now I did apply for the OT program and got accepted. It is a rigorous program where I would need to quit my day job and pay for tuition out of pocket. It would take me 2 years to get my masters if I had gone in this path. I couldn't take myself to do this. One, I am finally earning money where not every cents goes to debts and now have a retirement fund and savings that I contribute to. I do not want to stop this and go through a tough time financially. I am also age 32 and have the possibility that I want to try for children sometimes soon. I had to go through a process of grieving to let go of this dream.

A big bonus: this company offers the tuition and book reimbursement program. So I pay for tuitions and books at the beginning of each semester and when I turn in my passing grade, I get reimbursed as an incentive. The major must correlate with my current position.

My first day of the intro to American Business and advance English is on Wednesday of next week! Yay! Wish me luck into completing this program and to finally land either a BA or MBA degree.