"grab a drink grab a glass, after that i'll grab yo ass"...
Exams, projects, homeworks, everything...they're all officially over (as an undergrad anyway) as of Wednesday. Graduation is tomorrow at 2PM (moved back due to the weather) and I'm glad this phase of my life is over. There's obviously things we will all miss about our college years, but I've been ready to move on for quite some time. Time to enter the "real world" and realize my potential right?? Hmmmm..
Well, I'm still waiting on that TS/SSBI (top secret, single-scope background investigation) clearance before I can start at
Boeing. My manager is optimistic that it'll be soon, but most likely it'll be a while longer. Of course it's kind of a nuisance now, but in the end it's worth it. Companies involved in the gov't or defense invest 20-30k (from what I know) to get you this clearance, so once you get it, you're pretty much set as far as job security goes. And even if you're ever let go or leave your job for some reason, you can easily get any other defense job you want, just because of the fact that you already have clearance and a company wouldn't have to wait a year for you to come onboard. Having more people with clearance within a team or company is better when it comes to bidding for contracts, etc.
So in my X amount of time off, there's the holidays - home to the 757 this weekend, snowboarding at Wintergreen next week, Xmas in Nova with the fam, not sure what for New Year's, then a trip back to Seattle to visit you know who. I'll also be searching for an apartment near D.C. - I'm thinking Alexandria, Arlington, Falls Church, etc. - with an short commute to Springfield for work. I'll be taking an online biology class to fulfill my last requirement for my Bachelor's in Computer Engineering (I'm both a Computer Engineering and Computer Science major, and I'll be walking for CS tomorrow). I'll probably sign up for an Accounting class at GMU just to start preparing for an MBA. Yes, I'm going that route...although I change my mind every week so who knows. I also want to find a part-time night/weekend job...nothing major, just a help desk/tech-support type thing. I may or may not keep it when I start with Boeing, depending on how things balance.
I can hear the bad music playing already...it's about that time. Congratulations to everyone graduating...it's been a long time comin. - TH