Does anyone else find this Orangina ad disturbing?

Hat Tip: Back in Skinny Jeans

As a follow-up to the post about my new disclosure policy, I thought I’d let everyone know about how good PayPerPost has been to me. Now, keep in mind, I don’t post as often as most people do, but look at what I’ve gotten from them:

Have ALREADY been paid: $52
Pending payment: $20

It’s ridiculous. I get that money for advertising on my blog by word of mouth marketing, and you probably wouldn’t recognize the majority of my PayPerPost posts as such because they are topics that I would blog about anyways. I’ve got lovely money for things like hosting . . . and Christmas presents!!! And I don’t even have to compromise my opinions or blog . . . Why WOULDN’T you want to do this?!

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As you know, I have been working towards my Masters in management since July. This was in anticipation of a gained sense of business know-how that would aid in my quest to manage theatre.

Yesterday morning I withdrew from the program.

The program in and of itself is not a bad program, but it wasn’t right for me. It is the first year of the program, so there are still a lot of kinks to get worked out, the biggest of them being the recruitment/advertising problems. The program was billed with the tagline of “put your passion to work,” and they recruited people using the examples of people wanting to manage theatres, art galleries, etc.

However, upon going to classes, we quickly realized that the program was more geared at people who wanted to expand their knowledge into business for career purposes. We were requested to pick a field that we wanted to work in - human resources, marketing, investment banking, etc. None of those have anything to do with a previously conceived passion. The focus of the program is very much a corporate business focus.

The course work was IDENTICAL to the first year MBA coursework - same syllabi, same professors, etc. Had I known going into the program that that was the way it worked, I never would have applied. However, it being the first year, there was no way to get a testimonial, and I was forced to take what the recruiters were saying as fact.

For months I have been growing more and more miserable. The work is extremely difficult (I’ve never worked so hard in my life), extremely boring, and extremely not me. I haven’t been enjoying it for quite some time, and in the past couple of weeks I’ve come to the point where I couldn’t talk myself into staying any longer. Also, the courses are mostly based on group assignments and a final exam. The only real indicator of personal achievement is the final exam, and I was slowly discovering that my exam grades were not to my personal standards of success. Why slave away at something I don’t enjoy with no sense of accomplishment? It was a downward spiral.

So, after much deliberation, I withdrew. My family and close friends all support my decision, and I trust them very much, so that has helped with the process.

Now I’m faced with the fact that I’m not in school (for the first time in 20 years), and I have to do something. I have to get a job (which, of course, I wasn’t expecting to be an issue for at least 8 more months), and I need to start being a grown-up for real. And I have no idea where to begin.

So I am sorry for my absence, but there has just been too much going on in the decision-making department lately. However, I feel like a huge load has been lifted from my chest, and I am eager to see where life takes me now.

Please pray for me as I try and discern where I go now.

And now, back to blogging. I feel like I can get back to where I was before!!!! I missed blogging, and all my commentors! Life online is simply too addicting ;-)!