Changing Direction

So, guess what? I'm going back to school!

This is something that's been in the back of my mind for years now, and I've mentioned it to some of you- so this may not be a huge surprise. I've been really wanting to try something different for a long time. Programming is great, and I feel like I'm really good at it, so it's been hard to get away. But, honestly, I don't get a lot of satisfaction out of it, and it stresses me out a lot. I think it's time to take that leap.

So, I'm going to go to massage school, with the hopes of becoming a massage therapist. Massages are something that have always helped me out a lot, stress-wise. It's also been an area that I've been interested in learning more about, there a lot of spiritual aspects to it that fascinate me. I'm really looking forward to working with and helping people, and doing something that has a noticeable benefit, at least to a small section of the world. Most of all, I couldn't think of anything further from sitting behind a computer all day :)

I chose a school and signed up for classes today, so this is pretty much a done deal. I'm going to keep working on an hourly basis while taking classes, and then hopefully transition away from programming after I graduate. I think we have the financials worked out- it might be strenuous until graduation, but I'm hoping it will all pay off.

I'll be going to The Rising Spirit Institute. I looked at a few other schools in Atlanta. Most of them are technical/medical schools, which focus on massage as more of a clinical thing. Rising Spirit is a smaller school, with a really different attitude. They're about trying to further massage as an industry, and also trying to support the more holistic and natural side of the process.

I'll be starting October 3rd (yeah, I know!), and classes last for 9 months. So it's really not bad, time wise.

I'll keep everyone posted with how it goes- wish me luck! This will certainly be something very new and different for me.