I need to tell you a story about Herbie.*

I’m an account executive in Corporate & Professional Education at WPI. My main job is working with companies and their employees to figure out the kind of advanced education and training they need to succeed. I meet with business leaders, WPI creates custom programs, and then I host information sessions for employees who are interested in enrolling.

At one of these info sessions three years ago, I met Herbie.

Herbie was interested in one of our three-year master’s programs. Thanks to our collaboration with his company, the courses were to be delivered conveniently onsite (something we do pretty regularly, though our online delivery is popular, too). The degree was completely customized to the kind of work Herbie and his colleagues did, and his work was going to foot a significant portion of the bill. Slam-dunk opportunity, right?

Not for Herbie.

“I’m too busy,” Herbie said. “And who knows if I’ll even work here in three years?”

Fast forward to now: I have seen Herbie at eight different info sessions, at the same company, over the course of three years.

If he had started that first day, he’d already have the degree he was worried he wouldn’t have time to get.

Let that sink in.

Herbie isn’t alone—and neither are you, if you’ve thought the same thing about advanced education. Life is hectic: we date, we try to have a social life, we get married, we have kids, we buy houses. And on top of that, we have a full-time job (and then some). We know we need more education, and we’re looking forward to this magical time in the near-or-distant future when all will be quiet and peaceful and we can nestle into a graduate program with no muss or fuss.

But that’s not how life works, is it?

Deep down, we know there’s no magical, perfect time. Life doesn’t slow down; as we get older and take on more responsibility, it speeds up and gets more complicated.

If you’re waiting for the right time to take the leap, it’s here.

Yes, here.

Right now.

Don’t be like Herbie. Carpe Diem!

*Names changed to protect the procrastinators.

 

Hicks June 2015


About the author

Sue Hicks has been a member of the Corporate and Professional Education team since 2002, working in a variety of positions. She has a BS from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In her spare time, she loves to cook, spend time in her yard and travel with her husband. (She secretly wishes that she would have seized the day and earned her Master’s Degree…)

 

 

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