Monday, November 5, 2012

Going back to school

Have you ever decided to do something that initially seems completely terrifying, but the more you let your mind ruminate on the idea, the more excited you become?  That is a fairly good description of my state of mind right now.  For the better part of this year, I have been thinking about going back to school. And I think I am finally going to go for it. 

My initial hope was to get an advanced law degree, or international LLM (masters of laws), at a university here in Germany.  The closest university is a good 45 minute drive from here, which creates logistical and timing issues with having only one vehicle, and the timing for admissions would have made it difficult for me to have completed the degree before it was time for us to leave Germany.

My sights are set on another goal now.  Vermont Law School, where I received my law degree, offers an LLM in environmental law.  In fact, it is currently ranked #1 for its LLM program.  The additional reason this degree is attractive to me is that the school offers the program online, which makes it available to those unable to move to Vermont on a semi-permanent basis for school.  It also, consequently, makes it available for me to do from Germany.  In fact, I could technically start school in January 2013 and complete the degree the summer we head back to the States. 

Going back to school is both frightening and exhilarating   The work will be no cup of tea as the classes will require a minimum of 20 hours of work a week.  However, it will be an excellent way for me to reconnect with the environmental law world, reconnect with Vermont Law, and hopefully re-establish some strong networks.  More important to me though, it would give me an opportunity to start writing again and hopefully to finally publish.

The application is due in less than a month, so I'm scrambling around a bit trying to get everything turned in.  I hope to be telling you all soon though that I have completely gone off my rocker and I'm officially registered for school again.  For now though, I need to get back to writing the required essays for my application.  Yikes! I really never thought I'd be doing this again.  I guess you never really know where life is going to take you.

No comments:

Post a Comment