Hard Decisions

In the almost 10 years that my husband and I have been together we have faced some tough decisions, but the great thing is that we always end up on top. This week (not to mention this month) has been hard. It has flown by. We had to face a hard decision this week — to stay in Paris or go home to Texas.

The pros and the cons were strong in either case. First, I am graduating (“walking”) on Monday so technically I am done with course work with only my thesis to write. This, in theory, can be written almost anywhere. Yet, my case study is here in Paris (as of now). Also, my goal is to use my thesis as a stepping stone into a PhD program and my department chair wants me to be in Paris if “we” are doing this together. My professional goal is to become a university professor. I dream of myself as someone between my current department chair person and Anthony Bourdain.

If we go to Texas AJ and I could start working and bring some INcome. It’s a tough decision because AJ did not work at all while he was going to school and now he works as a stagiere and makes enough money to pay the interest on his school loans every month. I have been working part time, but it is only 10 hours a week at a little more than AJ makes. Together, it is a lot different from the professional salary level we were making. I am worried that if I went back to work (PT or FT) that I would put off my thesis and never get it done. I know this is true because it is hard to write picture books, much less a thesis, when you are working full time.

Paris is also quite expensive, especially if you are two students and only one person is working PT. Thankfully we had the good sense to plan ahead. But it is hard to wrap your mind around how much money (in USD) that you spend in Paris. But, as AJ always points out  we have a roof over our heads, we are together with the cats, we are fed every night, and we are in PARIS!

So, what decision did we make?  To say or to go?