Grad School?

Once upon a time I ponder attending grad school right out of college. I thought about food science, exercise science, sports nutrition, or even culinary school. I thought about a general nutrition masters in which I could concentrate on eating disorders or diabetes. Then I thought about being burnt out from the 30hr student work weeks with assignments, 15 hour class loads, and hours of studying that I had just gone through to meet my requirments to graduate from the coordinated program of dietetics from Alabama. So I decided not to go to grad school, and work instead. I mean, the pay raise wouldn't be that different anyway, so why bother.

Four years later, I find myself in Korea because of the US economy with only six months of experience in my field of "expertise," 23 CEU's under my belt, and needing 50-some more before 2014 or I loose my registration. I mean, we can just all face it. Confidence in my abilities has never been high, regardless of what they are or where. I constantly doubted myself through college and was always given preceptors who gave me reason to. The only encouragement I found was from my family and friends, who gave me the emotional support I needed to push through. I even took on more hours at UAB Medical West in Bessemer after graduation to help me out. Wouldn't you know, that was the greatest place, still today, that I ever worked. I don't remember ever working with kinder people.

I need a confidence booster, CEU's, and the credibility to match my credentials. How would I go about getting those things? Grad school seems to be the answer. However, I need money...and lots of if it. After going home for a couple months, I could come back to work in Busan. I could work in the US for a year, doing what would kinda scare me right now, and make $40-45k/year with about 20% tax & $12-30,000/year in living expenses. Or, I could come back to Korea with 0% tax and 1.2-3.6mil won (~$1,200-$3,000) / year in living expenses. I also have to weigh in the fact that if I go to school right after living in Korea, I will be paying out of state. I've never been good at math, so perhaps I don't really have that straight. But I'm trying to figure out the best option. Although really, I wanna come home, be with my family, exercise, eat nutritiously, and chill in the good 'ole US of A.

And that bug, I flushed it down the toilet. I had to wait until he had gotten crispy in the sun though. I couldn't pick him up all limp and moist...that's just gross!