Call it chasing a dream, fantasy or downright insanity, last night I actually went back to school!
First some background:
This wasn't a snap decision but rather the product of a long thought process that's been going on for a couple of years of so. Basically, I've been working at the same job for about 13 years and with credit for time served in the Army, I will be eligible for retirement in about five years or so. Given the poor economic times, I'm in no hurry to rush out the door but given the right sort of buy-out, anything is possible.
To be honest, there's really nothing in my current job that makes me want to hang around longer than I have to and it's unlikely that will change. Therfore, I've been giving thought to some sort of a second career (actually, more like a fourth career given my work history) and lately I've been leaning towards something that will have me working again with animals, preferably equines like my Max.
I worked with animals for about three years in the Army as an Animal Care Specialist (aka veterinary technician in the civilan world) and an additional three years in a civilian veterinary hospital when I got out. This was back in the 1980s and since then, the State has imposed more strict licensing laws so some sort of training is in order.
However, since I've been working with horses and dealing with Max for the fast eight years or so, I'm really more interested in the equine side.
OK, great but let's have a reality check here:
Just about all aspects of the animal business pay little- basically crap wages that you can't live on. Trust me, it's what originally drove me to other lines of work back in the 80s. Also, it doesn't help that the animal business is too a great degree dominated by females thus that means poor money (there I said it, now burn me at the stake!). So at a realistic level, I know I'm not going to make much money but I figure with the retirement, things might work out OK, along with my various historical research consulting gigs and the like (although this has pretty much dried up of late since the film industry isn't doing much here in the US/California).
So at a minimum, my animal education/re-education will make me a better horseowner (hear that Max!) and give me some good basic knowledge- always a good thing, the way I look at it.
To initiate this plan, the place to go is naturally Pierce College out here in the West San Fernando Valley. Naturally, I cooked up this plan at the most inopportune time last fall and all the classes were full by the time I'd applied and been accepted.
I grew up in the West San Fernando Valley and for years I used to pass Pierce College either on my way to school or work. It's a two-year community college and since I went directly to CSUN, I never went here or took classes (except for one abortive time in 1988 I attempted Spanish but gave up when faced with the prospect of sitting through three hours of class twice weekly in 100-plus degree classrooms) and we used to refer to it derisively as "high school with an ashtray". Registration was always a pain in the rear and there were far too many students in relation to the number of open classes. In short, a real mess.
When I re-applied last Fall, the process was painless and I was able to do it all online. While all the classes that I wanted were full, I was lucky to get a good registration appointment for the Spring and everything went just fine.
So here I am. I started with Ag Sci 602, "Horse Husbandry" and while I thought it was solely about the whole horse breeding/foaling process, it's actually the second part of a year long sequence of basic "Horse 101". Just the stuff I needed. I was pleasantly surprised in class and it promises to be a lot of good information.
Naturally, this is just the start and I'm only taking one class now, to ease into things. It's on Wednesdays from 7 to 10 PM so I have to hustle home from Downtown LA, change my clothes, and then brave the freeways out to the West Valley. It was a zoo for parking so I wound up not bothering and simply parked on Victory Boulevard and hiked. Next time I'll know better since there's more parking that what the map indicated (new construction).
What's also interesting is that while for years people were predicting the demise of agriculture/animal sciences at Pierce due to the complete building up of the Valley (aka developers screwing everything up), I was surprised to learn that the various programs are alive and well and in fact, there are NEW facilities being constructed to include extensive ones for horses. Very cool.
The one downside is that not all the essential classes are offered at night so I'm going to have to see what I can work out for my work schedule and if necessary, I can eat some vacation time. If the classes are good, I'm willing to do this.
Also, there's the reality that I may have to cut back on my reenacting activities and to be honest, maybe this has been a long time coming. Time to focus on something realistic and useful. We'll see how it goes.
I'm sure Max will appreciate the time off! :-)
First some background:
This wasn't a snap decision but rather the product of a long thought process that's been going on for a couple of years of so. Basically, I've been working at the same job for about 13 years and with credit for time served in the Army, I will be eligible for retirement in about five years or so. Given the poor economic times, I'm in no hurry to rush out the door but given the right sort of buy-out, anything is possible.
To be honest, there's really nothing in my current job that makes me want to hang around longer than I have to and it's unlikely that will change. Therfore, I've been giving thought to some sort of a second career (actually, more like a fourth career given my work history) and lately I've been leaning towards something that will have me working again with animals, preferably equines like my Max.
I worked with animals for about three years in the Army as an Animal Care Specialist (aka veterinary technician in the civilan world) and an additional three years in a civilian veterinary hospital when I got out. This was back in the 1980s and since then, the State has imposed more strict licensing laws so some sort of training is in order.
However, since I've been working with horses and dealing with Max for the fast eight years or so, I'm really more interested in the equine side.
OK, great but let's have a reality check here:
Just about all aspects of the animal business pay little- basically crap wages that you can't live on. Trust me, it's what originally drove me to other lines of work back in the 80s. Also, it doesn't help that the animal business is too a great degree dominated by females thus that means poor money (there I said it, now burn me at the stake!). So at a realistic level, I know I'm not going to make much money but I figure with the retirement, things might work out OK, along with my various historical research consulting gigs and the like (although this has pretty much dried up of late since the film industry isn't doing much here in the US/California).
So at a minimum, my animal education/re-education will make me a better horseowner (hear that Max!) and give me some good basic knowledge- always a good thing, the way I look at it.
To initiate this plan, the place to go is naturally Pierce College out here in the West San Fernando Valley. Naturally, I cooked up this plan at the most inopportune time last fall and all the classes were full by the time I'd applied and been accepted.
I grew up in the West San Fernando Valley and for years I used to pass Pierce College either on my way to school or work. It's a two-year community college and since I went directly to CSUN, I never went here or took classes (except for one abortive time in 1988 I attempted Spanish but gave up when faced with the prospect of sitting through three hours of class twice weekly in 100-plus degree classrooms) and we used to refer to it derisively as "high school with an ashtray". Registration was always a pain in the rear and there were far too many students in relation to the number of open classes. In short, a real mess.
When I re-applied last Fall, the process was painless and I was able to do it all online. While all the classes that I wanted were full, I was lucky to get a good registration appointment for the Spring and everything went just fine.
So here I am. I started with Ag Sci 602, "Horse Husbandry" and while I thought it was solely about the whole horse breeding/foaling process, it's actually the second part of a year long sequence of basic "Horse 101". Just the stuff I needed. I was pleasantly surprised in class and it promises to be a lot of good information.
Naturally, this is just the start and I'm only taking one class now, to ease into things. It's on Wednesdays from 7 to 10 PM so I have to hustle home from Downtown LA, change my clothes, and then brave the freeways out to the West Valley. It was a zoo for parking so I wound up not bothering and simply parked on Victory Boulevard and hiked. Next time I'll know better since there's more parking that what the map indicated (new construction).
What's also interesting is that while for years people were predicting the demise of agriculture/animal sciences at Pierce due to the complete building up of the Valley (aka developers screwing everything up), I was surprised to learn that the various programs are alive and well and in fact, there are NEW facilities being constructed to include extensive ones for horses. Very cool.
The one downside is that not all the essential classes are offered at night so I'm going to have to see what I can work out for my work schedule and if necessary, I can eat some vacation time. If the classes are good, I'm willing to do this.
Also, there's the reality that I may have to cut back on my reenacting activities and to be honest, maybe this has been a long time coming. Time to focus on something realistic and useful. We'll see how it goes.
I'm sure Max will appreciate the time off! :-)
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