03/17/2009

Ryan and I were hanging out in the kitchen last night while I was making a snack, when he suddenly said, "I think I should just go to culinary school."  This was big news, as I have offered that as a suggestion to him before and he always seemed to think it was too expensive (it is).  He’s also always said that he’s not sure how much he really cares about food.  The thing is, he has worked in the restaurant industry for 10-15 years on and off, and has been working in the kitchen at the same restaurant now for 7 1/2 years.  He really likes working in a restaurant and a culinary degree would help him if he wants to move up at all.  We talked it over, and it sounds like he is really serious.  More than anything, I think he wants the opportunity to get ahead and make more money, as well as having some kind of degree to his name.  He’s without a doubt one of the most intelligent people I know (and we have some very intelligent, well-educated friends!), but he has never gone to school to prove it to himself.

I’ve been doing a little research to figure out what our best options would be.  Two of our closest friends have gone to Le Cordon Bleu here in town, which is very well-respected, but also incredibly expensive.  Based on what I’ve found, it would cost around $36,000 for him to get his training there (and that’s just for an associates degree!  to get the bachelors you have to go out of the country to Paris, Montreal, etc.).  I found another program at one of the local Technical colleges (really, the best one around) that offers the same degree at technical college prices. =)  Also, because I’m a school counselor and know my way around all the policies, I’m pretty sure we can work it out so that the HOPE scholarship (GA’s lottery scholarship) would actually pay for pretty much all of it!  The program is accredited and from what I’ve seen, they do a really good job there.  The only real downside is that you have to do the program during the day.  This isn’t ideal, but it just means he would have to switch to night shift for awhile at work. 

I actually started to get kind of excited about it…although it’s going to make money a little tighter and make things a little more complicated if we have a baby, I really think it could work out well in the long run.  Hopefully, he could start the program this summer, and get through almost three semesters by the time we have a baby.  At that point, the school where I work will be moving into our new building, which is literally just across the interstate from the college.  The college has a great child development/daycare center.  If we were lucky, we’d hopefully be able to get a spot there, so we would both be close by while he was finishing up his last couple semesters!  Our hope would be that at that point (or even before) he would move into a management position at his job, or find a better-paying job somewhere else.  That would be great for us! 

I’m feeling so nervous, but so excited for Ryan!  I have to admit, he isn’t all that excited about going to "Technical" college, but I think it really is the most logical move, and I think it would easily get him where he wants to be.  We’ll see.