My Daughter Is 3 Months Old & Other Updates

My Baby Girl

How time flies!  It seems like yesterday she was born.

I'm impressed every day at how she's growing and developing.  Already she is sitting up (with assistance), grabbing and lifting toward her mouth, and babbling.  Speaking of babbling; her babbles sound more and more like language than just little coos.  Could she be an early talker?

Parenting - at least for the moment - is relatively easy.  Sometimes I get caught up thinking that my child is just the most perfect person to ever walk the Earth (of courseI'm sure every parent thinks this).  To an extent though it does seem at times that my little girl is becoming an overachiever like her dad.

But enough about her - I could go on about child development theory and what milestones she's getting close to, and how quickly she's achieving them.

Work v. Life Balance

Still working as an Optician, however it has become apparent to me that those above my boss won't open up my position to be full time.  While I have enough hours it's unfortunate that it's just enough.  In a manner of speaking I've come to a crossroad.  I can try to move elsewhere within a company I've worked at prior (in college) and apply my previous experience as a cashier and negotiate a full time position as a supervisor.  The other option I have is to keep looking around and applying for jobs, many of which are either in the medical field or in manufacturing.

Most of the opportunities for work that relate to my experience and tenure of my resume unfortunately don't pay very well, and leaping into another field of work inevitably means facing the unknown and risking not knowing anything about a job.  Most who know me well know that I prefer to expand within my academic goals and experience.  With most of my experience in typical white collar jobs it would be quite a transition to accept a blue collar position.

Plans To Continue My Education?

Since I left the Chicago suburbs - due to financial aid difficulties and inability to fund my own education - I've discovered through colleagues and others that there's a very slim job market for Meteorologists.  This of course I've taken into account, and after a couple years of thought and reflection on my academic career I've decided to make a slight adjustment to my academic plans.

During my time studying in the suburbs of Chicago I thought very seriously about a double major in Computer Science, given my enjoyment of computer programming and ability to work with computers on more than a basic level.  As I've discussed my interests and knowledge with my wife and friends it's apparent to me that perhaps I should consider well pursuing a career in IT.  The more I look into it the more I see a promising job market.  So this is definitely an option I'm greatly considering!

"But what of Meteorology?  Chasing storms?  Aren't you throwing all your learning and work away?"

Goodness no!  The weather will always be an interest, and I'd never carelessly throw away a piece of information on a whim.  I'll continue my interest as precisely that, an interest.  I'll still make observations and give reports via social networks to the National Weather Service.  It's just that I've decided to step back from a childhood dream and pursue something different, that's still an interest I've had since childhood.

So for now I've decided to teach myself the Python programming language.  After that probably Java as it seems knowing C and Java are good starting points and Python is a good bonus.  There's also certification sequences I can learn that can give me a start in IT related work.

So... long update!  There's been a lot on my mind and I've been itching to write and get my thoughts out, so... yeah.  You should probably know I can be long winded anyway 😜.