Hump Day Thoughts

I have so many thing running through my head right now that I just have to get them out. Stop reading now if you don't want to get confused. If you're still reading, bless you--and good luck!

I currently have an associates degree in Early Childhood Education. I have completed all of the requirements for my bachelors degree in the same field, but will not be graduating next month because I added a Psychology major and will graduate with 2 bachelor degrees in May of 2008. That's where I am at now. The question is, where do I go from here?

Getting my bachelors in Early Childhood Education doesn't really do much for me. Granted, I will be more educated in the development and teaching of young children, but as far as pay goes, it really doesn't change anything. In addition, you can work in the state of Michigan as a child care provider/preschool teacher without any college education. The main advantage to having any degree in Early Childhood Ed. is that you can be a lead teacher instead of just an assistant teacher.

Given these facts, one might wonder why I would choose to spend $40,000-$50,000 on school to get a degree that I don't need in order to work in my field. My reasoning behind this is that I love working with children. I feel as though this is what I am meant to do and the more educated I am about the development and learning of young children, the better I will be as a child care provider/teacher. I am good at what I do, but I can always be better. Now, onto the problem...

I am beginning to feel as if I am selling myself short. I feel like I should be doing something more. This has mostly been brought on by various professors and employers who continue to tell me that I am too good at what I do to just take care of children. They tell me that I should do more with my life. They don't want me to leave the early childhood field, but that I am selling myself short and settling with something that is way below my potential.

I have toyed with the idea of graduate school. I am not against graduate school, but I am not completely sold on it either. I have looked at the pro's and con's of graduate school and, I feel as though the con's outweigh the pro's. Here's my list:

Pro's=Have the ability to do more in my life, research areas of high interest that can help families and young children, recieve higher pay.

Con's=Have to move away from Brian to go to a graduate school while he finishes his degree here, not be able to work with children directly because teachers with a Master's degree are not highered as preschool teachers or child care providers because they have to be paid too much, get too involved in research to be able to leave the field to have a family and be a stay at home mom-(which is what I want to be when I have children.)

I just don't know what to do. I am asking you all here for your advice because if I ask my professor's, they all push me to go to graduate school. I'm just very confused. Part of me wants to just finish school next semester and move on to the next chapter in my life, the other part of me wants to accomplish more in my life. I guess the only way I can sum it up is that my job is fullfilling now, but what if it isn't in the future? What if I finish school next year and do not go on to graduate school, then get to a point in my life where my work is no longer fullfilling? Will I regret not going to graduate school??? Or what if I do go to graduate school and am not able to be a teacher or a child care provider? Will I regret going to graduate school? I just don't know, what do you think?