This fall, while most people are buying pumpkin spice everything and pretending they like the cold, I’ll be doing something actually bold: going online full-time to Southeastern Louisiana University to kick off my Master’s in Computer Networking and Administration.
That’s right. I’m going back to school. On purpose.
“Why?” — People Who Know Me
Because I like pain.
Just kidding (mostly). Honestly, I’ve always had this slightly unhealthy obsession with blinking router lights, firewalls that act like bouncers at an exclusive club, and that magical moment when a computer finally connects to the network like it’s found its soulmate.
So instead of watching another YouTube video titled “CCNA in 7 Minutes”, I decided to do the thing and go all in with an actual degree. Enter SELU, stage left—with their fully online, super-legit, very-much-accredited MS program, where I can level up my skills while still being within arm’s reach of snacks and sweatpants.
What I’m Getting Myself Into
Apparently, this degree will teach me how to:
- Build networks that don’t collapse like a house of cards.
- Make systems talk to each other without passive-aggressive pings.
- Master cloud platforms without accidentally deleting the internet.
- Become the person coworkers whisper about with awe, like, “Wait, they fixed the outage in 5 minutes??”
Oh, and I’ll learn the secret incantations behind stuff like:
- VLANs (Very Legit And Necessary)
- DNS (Definitely Not Simple)
- BGP (Basically Google’s Problem)
- Network security (so I can look serious while saying “It’s a zero-day exploit.”)
My Vision
I’m not just doing this for a fancy piece of paper (although I will 100% be framing it with dramatic lighting). I’m doing it to become the kind of network engineer who can:
- Architect resilient systems,
- Secure them like Fort Knox,
- And laugh in the face of “Why is the Wi-Fi down again?”
And yes, I’m ready to embrace the dark side: late-night labs, confusing subnet masks, and that one professor who will ask for a topology diagram with “real-world complexity” (translation: you will cry).
Real Talk Though…
Will I miss sleep? Yes.
Will I start seeing command line interfaces in my dreams? Probably.
Will I randomly yell “Traceroute!” in the middle of conversations? Already do.
But I’m excited. This is the next big step. It’s my “Ctrl + Alt + Upgrade.” And I can’t wait to see what I break (and eventually fix) along the way.
So if you see me on Zoom, hair slightly disheveled, muttering something about OSPF, just know—it’s all part of the process.
Here’s to the journey, to SELU, to network admin dreams, and to never, ever forgetting to save your configuration before rebooting.