Zach Owenby

Graduation, Finally.

So it has been a while since my last blog post. Too long, in fact. When I started my blog last spring, I had lofty aspirations. I set myself the goal of writing at least one new post per week, which really wasn’t much of a goal to begin with. For a while there (about three weeks) I made good on my goal, but then “stuff” got in the way. “Stuff” is the opposing force to any good intention, goal, or life event. When someone sets a goal, they often look at the end result while overlooking the journey, while underestimating the amount of effort required to reach the goal. “Stuff” will always find a way to get in the way.

When I was in high school, college planning was not something I really knew how to do. My parents never went to college, nor had any of our extended family, but they remained supportive of my desire to attend college. From an early age, the rest of society drilled into me the idea that you go to high school, graduate, move directly on to an undergraduate program, and wrap everything up with a graduate degree. Therefore, I set my education goals according to what the rest of society told me to do (which is never a good idea). By the middle of my senior year, I selected a small, private university located in Seattle; a university where several friends attended also.

Shortly after moving on campus, “stuff” began to get in the way. At this point, “stuff” meant my newly found freedom of living on my own and out from under my parent’s roof. I spent more time being social and having fun, and less time focused on school and class work. By the end of my freshman year, so much “stuff” got in the way to the point where I failed a course. The bigger failure though, was me. For my sophomore year, I decided to attend school part time and live off campus. While my grades were better, I found myself rudderless and adrift. Suddenly, the answer to the age old question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, was a resounding “I have absolutely no clue.” All because “stuff” got in the way. Since the financial costs to attend a small, private university are not trivial, I decided to drop out of college until I could figure out what I wanted to do with my life. When I made the decision to drop out, I thought it would be for a year, two at most. But “stuff” got in the way again.

It was not until nearly eight years later that I returned to school to complete my undergraduate degree. During the intervening years, I learned life’s lessons and grew significantly, finally able to decide on an educational path. The most important lesson I learned though was the answer to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, was that the question itself was meaningless. All the “stuff” that impeded my aspirations earlier in life was not wasted effort; it actually helped me to get to the point in my life where I am today. Obtaining a degree may make a person intelligent, but it does not make that person smart. “Stuff” will always get in the way, and that is not a bad thing because it teaches us the lessons not found in a lecture hall or text book.

This past month, I finally earned my Bachelors of Science in Information Technology degree. It only took 12 years to get to this point in my life, and while I feel that I could have (and perhaps should have) gone back to school sooner, I have no regrets about the path my life took. The diploma is worth far more to me now because of the “stuff” I experienced on the journey. I plan to begin my graduate program in January, but this time I will also expect and anticipate “stuff”.