Those were the words from my mentor this afternoon after I sent her a tentative farewell email letting her know my changed career plans. I’ll be leaving my company effective next Friday to take a new job – aligned with my pursuit of a Master’s this coming fall.

It wasn’t an easy decision to make on my part. I knew I would be giving up flexibility and world-class work/life balance at my current job. I wanted to move my career into the tech industry, and the opportunity came. I took a job offer with a subsidiary of a software/hardware company that serves retail/restaurant/hotels industries worldwide. The job lead came right around the time I had finished applying for grad schools. After a strange series of events, I got accepted, enrolled in school, and got the job offer literally within days of each other. My office will be located eight miles away from Georgetown’s Clarendon campus where I’ll be starting classes next week.

I’m excited, thrilled, and scared at the same time to be getting closer to my dreams.

I’ll be frank. All of this is happening so fast. I’m just catching my breath; my digestion, breathing pace, and pace of life are coming to a normative, slower creep. I do wake up these days from nightmares – not always daydreams, over something going very wrong. I’ll be a sub-average student, or will suck at waking up at 6:30 AM to make my commute to Maryland, or I’ll get so burnt out at a fast-paced job and 20-page papers that I’ll simply die. I’ll get caught sleeping through a meeting or, worse, in class, covering my desk in drool and ruining my chance of ever finding common ground with my fellow classmates. Just kidding!

I’m thankful to God, family, and those who stood by me as I regrouped and transitioned as a post-undergrad, with no idea what I’d do with journalism. I have no guarantees on how things will turn out – only more dreams on how I’ll get there. I’m officially a dreamer.