That's so good to hear, Shir. I hope the migraine passes quickly.

"Hey, hon, you know where the medical POA is you signed for me, right?"

Speaking as someone who holds medical POA for a friend - take photos of the documents and keep them on your phone.

I am going to go quietly have a meltdown.

I support this!

Sold the driveway basketball hoop today. Dismantled one of two tall shelving things in garage. Took a carload of things mostly from garage over to parents' for the estate sale. Aired up all the tires. Gave 2 bags of groceries from my house to my nail lady.

I cooked up 3 chicken pieces for meals. I've got banana bread and cheesy Hashbrown Casserole in the oven.

And I started steam cleaning my area rug.

I love steam cleaning!

I can only share here—. so I have embarked on my certificate program that will eventually lead to a master's. My realization, which frustrates me, is that all the things I do are validated (which is great) and named. But they all still just seem like common sense to me. Like, why wouldn't you conduct a needs assessment before embarking on an educational offering? Or whatever. I am trying to look at it as teaching me terms and studies that will make my (common sense) recommendations matter to academics, but do we really need a theoretical framework and evidence to tell us that if we are moving to a new technology, we need to teach people how to use it? Isn't that just like, logic and common sense? And this is why I never pursued a graduate degree.

You'd be surprised how many people need the common sense solution pointed out to them, Sophia!

But this is where being an older student, with plenty of Real World ™ experience pays off, because you'll sound like a freaking genius to all your younger classmates.

Like, why wouldn't you conduct a needs assessment before embarking on an educational offering?

Ha. Ha. Ha. It's just self-evidently a good idea! And who has money for a needs assessment?? Or time??

My realization, which frustrates me, is that all the things I do are validated (which is great) and named. But they all still just seem like common sense to me. Like, why wouldn't you conduct a needs assessment before embarking on an educational offering?

This is sort-of what I'm dealing with too. I've been doing project management for 20 years, but my title was never Project Manager, and now in order to get a project management job, I need certifications in Six Sigma and Agile, which both seem to be, to me, common sense. Agile seems to be all about being able to modify a plan "on the fly" if (when) things change, instead of trying to stick to a linear plan that no longer suits the project. Which to me is... duh, yeah, of course that's what you do. I need a certificate that confirms that I can adapt to changing conditions? How the eff could I do this job if I DIDN'T adapt to changing conditions? But okay, whatever. I'll take an 8-week course to prove I can do what I've been doing for decades, and then maybe I can get a g-d job.

swears in Geralt

I know that feeling, Zen. All of my experience in publishing was years ago, and it's changed so much (and people in the industry have changed jobs, left, retired, making most of my contacts useless) that I don't even qualify for a job anymore. Aside from the fact that pretty much all of the jobs are in NYC anyway.

And despite having an office job for years (including my own correspondence and phone calls and scheduling) I don't qualify for an admin job, because I don't know most of the new programs they want. Which is why I'm managing a bakery, I guess.

But when I think about going back to school -- I've been considering medical stuff, too -- I'm so confused about what to choose, how to choose, what I might actually be good at, that I just crawl into a hole and ignore the whole thing.

Anyway! ::hugs Zen and everyone who wants a hug::

Man, all of that is 100% me, Amy. It's discouraging and frustrating. I don't know what the best thing for me to do is, I don't know enough to even know what I want to do, and the people at Unemployment are not as helpful as I hoped they'd be. I'll probably end up getting the certs and sticking with project management but I'd rather do the two-year Associates in Information Technology. Computers are interesting and I'm easily bored. I think project management will be stressful in the same way my last job was stressful, and I'm not certain my mental health can take much more of it.

Sophia and all - Sadly, a lot of what you're picking up in certifications and additional degrees is the jargon you will need to persuade other people to believe you know what you're talking about. I run into this all the time. My usability recommendations may make sense but I don't have the terminology (and sometimes the verbal quickness) to make the committee I'm dealing with believe me.

And I don't have a solution. When I went to Library School I was still young and naive and, while frustrated, I survived. I don't have the energy for that any more.