workin' it

Life in the Tazza Land has been HELL lately. We've fired two people, hired two people, and then one of our new hires took another job and Frank quit. We've been understaffed and to make it even better, our Micros system was down for two weeks. "Skeleton Crew" could never be more aptly used to describe our current situation. Every day is an adventure (or something like that), and as much as I do love the challenge, it gets more than frustrating. I'm happy to work with such great people and to be part of a coffee shop that sells pretty kickass coffee compared to most places, and I like the fact that I've worked my ass off and moved up from the lowest-rung food prep person to the assistant store manager. All that aside, however, is the knowledge that (a) there's no more room for advancement and (b) I make waaay too little to call this any sort of career. Consequently, (c) I need to get a different job. And maybe even (d) start a career.

I've been throwing out resumes left and right, applying at various organizations and businesses, but so far no takers. There's a saying that once you get in coffee, you stay in coffee. It isn't because we just fall in love with coffee and could never imagine doing anything else; it's simply that our resumes are tailored, quite exclusively, to one niche in the marketplace. Cafe after cafe isn't exactly a recipe for a kickass resume, and when employers see "Cincinnati Christian University," their first thought is, "Oh, look, a useless degree in redundant liberal arts." Not that my degree's useless: I cherish the time I had at C.C.U. and the way it's shaped me to think differently than a lot of people (Frank told me the other day that he noticed bible college graduates tend to think differently than msot people, and in an interesting way). My undergraduate sets me up to get my Master's, and that's the obvious next step.

The question, though: "What should I pursue a Master's in?" The old addage goes, "Do what you love." And so I immediately want to start my Master's in American History. But the saying isn't "Do what you love for the cost of 20-30,000 dollars." If I'm honest with myself, my main motivation for a Master's in American History is the appetizing thought of just immersing myself in history for hours on end and learning about these things through lectures and homework. I'm a dork, I know. But I can do all of this for free, the downside being that I don't have a piece of paper saying I know what I'm talking about. As cool as such a paper would be, 20,000-something dollars is a pretty steep price. Dan Dyke told me a long time ago that it doesn't make sense to get a Master's in something just because you want to; the whole point of a Master's is to qualify yourself to get a degree where you can earn enough to pay back all your college loans. If you can't get a job enabling you to pay it back, then the degree was really a stupid idea, no matter how cool the paper may look or how accomplished it'd make you feel. Whatever I get my degree in needs to be something in which I can make enough to pay back my loans. I can justify my Master's in American History by telling myself that I can get a teaching job; but (a) the teaching market is flooded, (b) those with bachelor's degrees are chosen over those with Master's because the less qualified you are, the less they have to pay you (a big deal when school budgets are being slashed to the bone), and (c) every article I've read online about the worst college degrees mentions history at the top of the list (usually right next to Library Science and Religion).