Going Back to School While Planning a Wedding

This year, Brooke and I not only decided to get married, but we also decided to BOTH go back to school! If you are wondering if that was a sane idea, I can honestly say, it’s debatable.

On top of that, Brooke kept her full-time position as a teacher, and I worked two part-time jobs. Only this month, I dropped one of those jobs. Both of us are due to graduate at the same time next year, as these are only two-year programs. She’s pursuing a master’s in social work, and I’m pursuing a degree and licensure in Physical Therapy Assisting.

When I say this has been beyond hard, I truly mean it. Brooke and I have come extremely close to our breaking points more than once, and it’s taken a toll on our relationship and our mental health this past year.

Life is complicated, but we definitely had our reasons for making this crazy decision to take on, like, triple the work during a time when we needed to be planning our upcoming wedding. The question is, is it worth it?

My answer? Umm, not sure yet. I will let you know when it’s over.

Thinking About Going Back to School?

If you are seriously thinking about going back to school, be sure to consider why you are considering it. There can be drawbacks to this, as you may already know.

• You will be sacrificing a lot of your time and energy to classes and schoolwork.
• Less time means you may not be able to juggle your job well.
• If you have kids, well, God bless you. I still don’t know how parents manage going to school, working, and taking care of little ones. I believe if there is a will, there is a way, but still. That seems superhuman.
• You may have to take on debt. I worked really hard to pay off the first degree I invested in. Coming to terms with having to do that again is still a rather hard pill for me to swallow.

The Rewards

Make sure you know that the reward has a solid chance of outweighing the consequences of pursuing a degree. For me, it was options. With a new door open, I wouldn’t have to work in a lab staring into a microscope all day or at a café for the rest of my life. The Physical Therapy Assistant profession could offer me flexibility in my schedule, the chance to make a direct beneficial impact on the people I work with and my community, and a higher-paying income that would certainly be more than working weird hours at a restaurant. Keep in mind, I have nothing against anyone who works in a lab or a restaurant. All I’m saying is that I’ve tried both of these working spaces out, and doing them for a long time has worn me out physically and emotionally.

What About the Wedding?

I’ll do an update on how the wedding planning is going soon, but basically, during our short breaks and windows of opportunity, we take some time to bust out a wedding-related task.

I find that this has been fairly effective in getting things done. Working a little bit on wedding stuff each day has not seemed to work too well for Brooke and me. Instead, we bring up a task we’ve been needing to accomplish, determine a time or day we need to do it, and when we are both in the room together, we sit down and hammer it out, even if it takes us over two hours.

The other thing that has helped me is to know that although any bride may want their wedding to be perfect, it isn’t good to get hung up on this idea of perfection. Truthfully, weddings are already perfect when you have all your loved ones and friends coming together to celebrate and feel the love. Minor issues that arise should probably be considered normal.

What I Love the Most

Besides Brooke, what I love the most is the anticipation leading up to the wedding. It is now just about two months away, and the excitement of it is the best! I know that once the wedding is over, it’s, well, over. And that is a little sad to think about since so much energy, time, money, and heart have gone into all the details of that special day. So, that is why I’m trying to live each day individually and in the present and not mentally try to speed anything up. I just want to enjoy every moment leading up to our wedding and be ready for it in the best way possible.

Oh yeah, and I recently had my bachelorette party in Florida! I’ll write about how that went soon and provide some great places to stop if you’re in certain parts of Florida!

Thanks for reading!