I seriously, seriously could not have done it without you guys! Your support, emotionally and with your generous gift of funds made this possible. And it was a good wake up call that if I wanted my life to stop sucking, I needed to take action, and I am pleased by the action so far, even though I am still a complete nervous Nellie.
Did I tell you I signed up for a four course master's level Instructional Design Certificate (I wanted to make sure I quit theatre). If I do well/don't hate it, I can transfer them to a master's in Education. And I received a very good compliment from someone at work (not to my face, it was in conversation with another person who shared because she thought it would make me feel good.). A newish, but well-thought of faculty member said that I should be encouraged to get my PhD, because I had such good thoughts would do good research. That person pointed out that I didn't have my Master's and the faculty member was SHOCKED (which is a weird thing about academia I hate) and said I had to do it because the School needs people like me who are good thinkers to move up through the ranks.