An Exercise in Persistence

When the economy turned 5.5 years ago, The Hubs managed to hang onto his job for multiple rounds of layoffs until the final one in August 2008.

Wow, let me just process that for a second. 2008.

Anyway, he lost his job but got a pretty nice severance package that we both were pretty sure would hold our household together until he got a new job.  Little did we know.  After sending out what felt like a bajillion (yes, that's a technical term) resumes with no resulting job offers we knew we were going to be in trouble.  At this point I'd like to tell you it was out of some sort of insight into the current job market or a real understanding of the state of the economy and the projections for the next five years that prompted me to encourage The Hubs to go to college (his first time ever) and get his undergraduate degree.  I'd LIKE to tell you that, but really just him being home all the time bored out of his mind was getting on my nerves.  I did it out of self preservation because if he didn't get out of the house and do something, anything, it was going to get ugly up in our house. The Hubs will never be allowed to retire.

Regardless of the reason, he enrolled in the local community college full-time with the intention of just getting an AA/AS so he could put 'some college' on his resume.  He graduated in 2011 with both associates degrees and with no change in the job market he enrolled in a local University to finish up his degree in Computer Information Systems.  Somewhere along the way, he decided to dual major with International Business which we knew was going to push out his graduation time, but we both felt like the Computer major combined with the Business major would give him even more job opportunities in this very uncertain economy.

For 4 years, with the help of student loans, unemployment, a few government programs, and a lot of extra contract work on my part, he'd managed to stay focused just on school.  For the last year and a half though, when all of that ran dry, he was forced to not only work a full time job, but also attend school full time in an attempt to finally complete all the credits required for his degree.  It's been an exercise in persistence for not just him, but our whole family.  And a pretty good example for both the older girls and the younger kids about what you can achieve when you put your mind to it.

I am happy to report, The Hubs has just completed his last final for his last class.  He has finally completed all the required courses for his degree.  His official Graduation Ceremony won't be until the end of Spring but I can't begin to express how proud we all are of him, of all of his hard work, his persistence and his commitment to do what he needed to benefit all of us.

Congratulations Hubs.. You did it!

Seriously.. Thoughts?