Master Ellen & Master Mason

(From Undergrad, and Mason's roommate let me steal his gear for the picture.)

With all of the excitement of Theo being born, I didn't want it to go without mention that Mason also finished his masters degree! When Mason and I moved to Shreveport he decided that it was time to bite the bullet and start his program since eventually in order to promote past the rank of Captain in the Air Force he would need to have the box checked next to masters degree. After Mason started looking into schools and programs I began to debate about whether or not I should go back to school as well. I think it was the "we're living in a TLF, I don't have a job yet, I spend all day surfing the Internet" mentality talking, but I decided that it would probably be easier to do a masters degree starting earlier rather than later.

Mason began his program pretty quickly after moving while I waited a few weeks/months after him. We both decided online programs would best suite our schedules and military life since we didn't know if we would be staying in Shreveport when we first moved here. Weekends quickly turned in to computer dates. We would both be buried in the books, readings, video lectures, and each sat with a laptop on our laps in our sweats. I think at first it was a little, dare I say, fun. However, that newness quickly faded into thoughts of damn, we're back in school. Papers due weekly, midterms, finals, actual research papers that required thought, discussion posts, grades! I had become accustomed to giving grades not receiving them at this point.

At various times Mason doubled up his classes, and I did for only one semester so that I would be finished before Theo was born. Anyone who gives us crap for doing an "easy" online masters degree might get shot! We both did A LOT of work in our programs. I think at the end of mine I figured out that I had written easily over 1500 pages of work for the degree in just 18 months. Mason got home from Guam and got to work on his final thesis that ended up being more work than he had bargained for, but he worked steadily to finish before Theo arrived.

And now...we're both through with our degrees. I earned a Masters of Science in Education with a focus in Adolescent Literacy and Technology and Mason earned a Masters of Aeronautical Science with a focus in Aviation Management, phew! Someone in my classes once said that when people earn PhDs they are called "Doctor so-and-so" by their students/peers, so wouldn't it be appropriate for those people earning their Masters degrees to be called "Master so-and so." So from now on, you can refer to us as Master Ellen and Master Mason. And for those who are wondering, we'll be leaving the PhD to Theo. After all, don't you always want more for your children?(Clearly, this is what Theo thinks of that idea.)