"So, Dawn Marie, how is that job search going?", "So, Dawn Marie, how come there are lots of cam shots of you somewhere else partaking of an alcoholic beverage and being umotivated to even get off a couch" "Did that welfare application get approved?"

Ok, I haven't been looking for a job this week. But I got some very cool news this week as well that warrants that. As you know, I lost my job two weeks ago for stupid bullshit concerning my webpage and quite frankly, was afraid to tell anyone how foolish I felt for that happening, especially my parents. But when I came back from Fantasm, they had something they wanted to discuss with me - and the first thing I thought of was that they thought I had no direction and had signed me up as a mail-order bride for some czar in Turkey.

Nope, couldn't be further from the truth. They recognized the fact that I wanted to go back to school even though I was working and since I am getting stellar grades have offered me the chance to go to school full time and they will pick up my tab and expenses. Surprised? you bet. I had no idea how to take that. So in May, I will be attending school full time and won't stop till I get my degree in computer graphics and then from there, UAH offers a web training class to hone my HTML skills. Yeah, yeah, I know I don't need a degree in that as I could probably pick this up on my own, but an employer places a lot of importance on a silly piece of paper. Besides, this is what I really enjoy doing.

"So why didn't you do this in the first place? - why did you quit school?" Well, I started school early because I graduated early and after a year and a half I didn't know if I really wanted to be a nurse and I freaked out and had a breakdown at nineteen. I know it sounds pretty pathetic, but it's hard to make a life decision as to what you want to do with the rest of your life when you are so young. At nineteen, all I cared about is getting a fake ID, when the next party is at the frat house, and who is the cute guy in the leather pants. I couldn't even cook for myself much less decided that I wanted to work with needles for a living.

I thought my parents would think of me as a failure as dad went to college and finished and mom at least went to college to find someone like dad. So essentially they both got the goal they were looking for, while all I had to show was a pile of books that I couldn't sell back. They assured me that I could go back whenever I wanted to and that just because I don't go to college doesn't mean i am failure - they just wanted me to be happy.

So I worked since I was nineteen at various jobs and went about my life without really knowing what interested me to actually learn it. I could pretty much pick up anything I needed to learn for any job but nothing really moved me. And began to see that I wasn't going to accomplish anything great unless I chose a skill and stuck with it. And then I saw last Christmas that UAH had a program where I actually would look forward to most of the classes I would be taking