Last week, after out of curiosity, I downloaded a brochure from an university I previously attended, the school called me. I don’t know how they got my phone number. It wasn’t as though I listed my number on my LinkedIn profile. Maybe they have my information stored from when I attended school there? Was I even using the same number back then?

The brochure I downloaded was about a brand-new Masters program – Masters of Financial Technology. It’s a graduate degree that has to do with leveraging AI in the world of Finance. It was those two words – Financial Technology that piqued my curiosity.

Long ago, when I had to make a decision to whether continue to Graduate school or say sayonara to schooling forever, I chose the latter after failing to pass the GMAT three times. Tests and I do not get along. I wanted to get a graduate certificate in information technology, which was part of the business school at the time, but without a passing GMAT score, there was no way to get in.

When the school called me, I was mostly surprised but then after hearing about the program, I had to be completely frank about whether I could do it or not. To my surprise, the GMAT wasn’t one of the requirements. According to the internet, GMAT is no longer the requirement for many Graduate degrees, and just like that, a crazy thought began to form.

I knew from the get-go that I wouldn’t attending that school. There was no way I’m willing to brave the afternoon traffic through Downtown Salt Lake City on any given weekday. With the GMAT out of the way, I can contemplate about getting a Masters degree in another area like Accounting or Finance and I can do with a school much closer.

So for the first time in a long time, I went to my second alma mater’s website and searched for Masters degree majors.

My mom was all for me going back to school. “Stop gardening,” she said, “Stop planting stuff and go back to school.” That was her reason – to get me to stop doing the thing I love. That would be one of the many reasons for me not to go.

Another reason is the money. Holy moly, do you know how much a graduate degree cost? How do I even pay for that? Yes, my work will re-imburse the tuition but not much and I am not interested in taking out another loan. The school that called me told me the entire degree would cost $39,000. I don’t know about you but that’s a lot of money.

Let me give you one more reason for why I feel this is not for me. Tests, homework, projects, classes, with a full-time job, do I even have time? Or the energy? I feel like it’s not about exploring my curiosity but purely about exams scores and grades. Even though I know it’s one to two years but with a steady job and a house debt, do I really want to do this?

As much as I would love to attend another college graduation and finally put CPA next to my name, I just can’t see this as a path for me. Life is short and I would much prefer to do something I love as opposed to be stuck in a basement classroom listening to a guy lecture on taxes.