29 December 2015

I finished the final on December 12 2015 for my CNT140 class. The class was hard, but not in the sense of content material, but just on the sheer fact that there was much to grasp in a relatively short period of time of 15 weeks, and the class only met for 1 day a week, on a Saturday no less.

The lessons Professor Larry Heinz has ingrained in me will no doubt prove useful for a lifetime. There was much material, mostly fundamentals, and lots of exposure to working and theoretical examples of the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model.

Then there was my work environment. People well versed in networking like Brian Hitch existed in my workplace environment-- I never needed help from Brian on CNT140, but there were definitely workplace scenarios that required his assistance. In time, I sought his assistance less and less as more fundamental knowledge was engrained in me. BTW, I recently learned that Brian used to be a professor at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona. Cool dude.

I'm fortunate as fuck.
My roommate used to be a professor at Estrella Mountain Community College, AND ran their own business.
My Vice President of IT used to be a professor at Estrella Mountain Community College too, AND ran their own business.
(These really are two different people)

The spring semester of 2016 will only hold more exciting opportunities. There'll be another Cisco class, CNT150, along with Windows Server, Linux Operating System, and IT Ethics. There'll be even more money saved and invested. There'll be a better future by the end of the year.

Would not have been able to do this without the enabling power that higher education provides.