A New Life

Remember that Everclear song, "I Will Buy You A New Life," or something like that? Well, I have a new life, and I didn't even purchase it directly. I went to school directly out of high school and pursued a degree in computer engineering. 3 years into that, I realized, what the fuck was I thinking? I don't want to devote my life to memory and CPUs and operating systems. I am no longer interesting at parties. I have nothing to talk about with my family and friends. So, I struggled with changing my major to something else. I eventually changed to linguistics.

2 years later, I had finished that BA degree a better person. Ready to conquer the world, I started working at my (then) current job full time, with medical and dental benefits and the whole lot. I figured I would work there for the summer, or maybe until the end of the year, and during that time I would look for a job in linguistics. Little did I know, no such job existed, especially in Santa Cruz. So, I changed career paths again, and decided I wanted to teach high school English. Well, they weren't hiring substitutes in Santa Cruz county at that point either.

What to do? I was doing web design with a degree in linguistics, and a burning itch to do what my passion was (no, not blow. linguistics.) So, I applied and enrolled in a 2 year MA program at SF State, which was pretty alright. I was a little bored the first semester, but as I started taking graduate classes with good professors, I finally found my true passion, which was a narrow sub-branch of linguistics known as discourse analysis, wich some focus on sociolinguistics.

But, after graduating, I resumed my job as a database and IT guy, full time, with benefits. I realized after briefly looking for work that I was destined to do IT forever. I do it for my friends, my family, my own house, and it manages to pay the bills also. Too bad I actually didn't like it that much. Too bad I spent 7 years in school to better myself and land an excellent job in linguistics. Too bad indeed!

So a couple weeks ago, a friend from SFSU contacted me and told me I should apply at this one place she works, which does discourse analysis of documents. I thought, too good to be true? Nay. I applied, was offered a job, and took it. I quit my job in IT (much to the dismay of my coworkers and boss, but you gotta take an opportunity like this... and at a pay and benefits raise to boot!), and I start my new life tomorrow. So I guess I didn't really purchase my new life, but I did spend a lot of time and money getting my education, so that kind of counts, right? I'm pretty excited.