Why I study at the university?

The main reason that I now study at the university is to be able to keep my job!
Now two and a half years ago my husband, that works for Scania, got an offer to work for a three year period in the US. At that moment I where on parental leave, from my job at Astrazeneca, so I considered moving here as an opportunity to spend even more time with my children. The first six months here in Indiana I was on parental leave, then I got study leave for the rest of the three year period.
A prerequisite to keep my employment is that I study half time. That is quite a lot for me considering that raising kids here demand a lot of the parents, or actually I should say the mother. So that is the reason I chose to study on the Internet. That way I do not have to have a certain schedule to fit with my kids activities. But I think it would have been more interesting to attend some university classes locally. Then I would have had more social interaction.

However during this time my studies has grown more important to me than just enabling me to keep my employment. It gives me challenges, something important that is my own responsibility and I think it adds on to my competence. If I had not studied I think I would have felt more restless and had a harder time getting used to live like this.

Many years ago, after finishing my studies at technical college, I also studied at the university. The reason then was that I thought I needed a more specific and somewhat deeper education in order to get an interesting job. I chose to study a one year program at the university. The reason I chose this particular program was firstly that the subjects interested me, secondly it was really convenient because it was on the neighbouring campus from my college. That way I did not have to move. I also considered longer programs at other schools but I guess I have always been swaying about the question "What to do when I grow up?" So to choose this short program was what I could motivate myself to do at that point. After completing this program I immediately got a job and have been working in this field ever since.

In retrospective I suppose if I had invested in a longer education I would have had a broader field of job opportunities. Not giving myself that advantage I sometimes regret. But I have also learned that education is not the only factor that is influence what kind of job you get or how your career develops. It is also very much depending on opportunity and your own personality.