Chapter One

I am a prodigy of NYC. I have a Bachelor's degree in business and have recently finished a dual Master’s program. I went back to school for the graduate degrees because I realized that I had lots of managerial experience, which has helped me become "a well-rounded individual”, but I still didn't have experience in the field I want to be in – Hospitality.

I am different – you see - I love taking classes and have always loved to learn. I'm one of those weird people that would be a career student if I could afford it; so, when I started my graduate program I really enjoyed it. I felt like I had a new purpose/goal – and that was to finish so that I could start.

I joined SNHU's on-line graduate Hospitality Administration program and put myself on a time-line figuring that once I got closer to graduation I would start making power moves towards my goals. Now - believe it or not - Distance Education can be very stressful and lots of work. That is because when you are in a classroom the teacher asks a question and one person raises his/her hand - answers and that's it. In a virtual classroom all students have to answer the questions and it has to be something more then "I agree" – it's a lot of work. But – I can choose when I log on to their website and I learned how to manage the work load.

Well here I am, 5 years later: a plan in my head, a $60k debt, a 2 year old computer, and faith. That last one may sound silly, but sometimes you have to tell yourself, “I believe in you” and keep saying it until you believe it.

Why have I shared all of this? I think it’s because I may be where many of you are now. By this I mean that there may be a few of us out there that have always aspired to do something else, or be something else – but for one reason or another, have not been able to pursue that dream. For me, I think I am finally ready to start and I want to share the experience. I think the worse that can happen is that we'll learn a little bit about what it is to make decisions and build something from an idea to fruition. But, the good outweighs the bad. Maybe through this forum I can share something with you and you can share something with me.

Jax