Eight years of night classes, and finally a degree
The bachelor's in computer science that took me the better part of a decade, one after-work class at a time.
I transferred my associate’s degree into the University of Missouri, St. Louis, to finish a bachelor’s in computer science. On paper it ran from 2009 to 2017. That is not a typo. It took me eight years.
Not by choice. For most of it I could only take night classes, after work, because school had to fit around a full-time job. My first job had bent its schedule to let me go to class. When that job went away and I moved on, the new places weren’t set up the same way, so evenings were all I had. One class at a time, semester after semester, the long way around.
I did graduate, though. And one of the better parts came near the end: because I had been doing iOS development for a while, and iOS was still pretty new for both working engineers and for the university, I got to work with one of the department heads to help build up their mobile program. Getting to give a little back to the place that had been so patient with me felt right.
My one real regret is the people. My schedule kept me on the outside of things. The classes kept reshuffling into new faces, so I was never in the same group long enough to make real friends. I would have liked that.
A few professors made the slog worth it, and I want their names here: Mark W. Hauschild, Cezary Z. Janikow, John Antognoli, and Martin Pelikan. Thank you for keeping the lights on for the night-class crowd.