Getting My Master’s Degree
Somehow, I got it into my head that I needed to further my education. I had my bachelor’s in criminal justice that I got from the University of Central Florida (UCF), but it was not really relevant to my job. I’ve worked in local government for 14 years (as of Jan 10, 2024), and I kinda wanted some letters after my name.
I decided to apply for the UCF Master’s of Public Administration Graduate Program (MPA) because I am a dumb dumb that forgot how much going to school sucks. I applied in May of 2021 and started classes that August. I quickly discovered that I do not like reading academic papers, but didn’t have too much trouble with the coursework. A lot of it was stuff I already knew from working in local government for so long. The only class that was really a challenge was Research Methods in PA. That class was brutal. It was a lot of math (gross), statistics (gross), and analyzing numbers (ew). All I wanted to do was scrape by. I abandoned hope of getting an A in the course by the third assignment, so I ended up with a B for that course, dragging my overall GPA to 3.911 by the end of the program.
I took a pretty aggressive approach to the degree and took 2 or 3 classes each semester. I kept track of it all through spreadsheets – what I needed to complete and when. It got overwhelming and I was pretty stressed out a lot of the time. Juggling full time work, running/racing, and what I learned was full-time school (3 classes at grad school is considered full-time) ended up being a LOT.
BUT, I did get it done. I did my capstone course in Fall 2023 and walked at graduation in December! I even did a fun graduation photoshoot with my friend Ali! I’m glad to be done and I will never ever EVER go back to school again. If I even mention going for another grad degree, please squirt me with a water bottle and tell me NO!
