Balance.

Sometime last year, in a fight to figure out what I wanted to go to school for, I had landed on attending IU to make my way through their Telecommunications program with a concentration in the more technical aspect of things. You know, filming, editing, lighting, etc. This decision stemmed from one of my favourite (and I'm sure it's up there on your lists as well) television shows ever, Mythbusters, and how I would give my left pinky to be a part of that production.

As my wonderful wife and I were watching it, I had mentioned this to her (minus the giving up of extremities) and we'd decided that since I'm not much for math and it's extended family required to be a part of the myth team and that since I've always had an interest in filming, that the best way to do this would be to be a part of the production team, more specifically, behind the camera.

Now, it was obviously a long shot to start this up and end up on the set of the Mythbusters, on one hand because they already had a crew, and on the other, would the show even be around when I finished school (god forbid it EVER cease to exist)? This didn't really matter though because once I started, I realized that school, like it used to be, still wasn't for me.

My initial excitement to go back to school was to be able to learn all I didn't care to when I was in high-school. I was going to take maths and sciences and all I could possibly fit into my schedule so I could be a jack of all academia (in a minor fashion, of course). I just wanted to know a litle bit of everything on my way, not only for the sake of boosting my own level of intelect, but to also do better at Jeopardy, of course. We all want to make Alex Trebek proud, don't we?

This proved difficult for me though.

While I wanted to learn all I could, I also wanted (and needed) to do many other things, including spend time with my wife, and multi tasking is something I was never good at. So I coasted, did the work I needed to do to get good grades, and finished out the semester with a 4.0.

Did I learn anything though? Other than the fact that I couldn't do 3 and a half more years of it, not really. Things needed to change, and with a little planning and a few hiccups along the way, things changed to working full time and slowly working on a visual communications degree with a concentration in photography at Ivy Tech.

Sure, this might still take three more years, but being that it's only a two year program, there'll be a lot less classes over those three years, which means more time to do everything else, like spend that time with my wonderful wife, work, keep things in order, and work at all of the other little hobbies that full time school wouldn't have left me much room for.

It may sound like giving up on the four year degree means I'm not willing to work for what I want in life, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I am more than willing to do the work necessary to do and be something, but I will not let it take over my life and render me putting other things on the back burner for the time being.

I am a libra, folks.

Balance is what I am, and I think I'm finally starting to realize this.