It’s been five days now since I finished my last class for my Executive MBA. Five days since I’ve had some sort of nagging school work hanging over my head, interrupting my fun and good times. Five days since I’ve had to prepare for my next call with my fellow classmates on some project or simulation or paper. Five days since I’ve had to worry about my schedule and how it affected family life and events. And I gotta tell ya, it’s a fucking glorious thing to be free.

For the last two years, I’ve put a lot of things on hold while I completed my degree. I severely cut back on my writing. I hardly made any short films outside of my brother’s wedding. I didn’t dabble in making any music. I didn’t do nearly as good of a job of taking care of myself physically as I should have. And for all of these things, I’ve suffered.

This commitment wasn’t for naught, though. On the contrary. I liked the program more than I thought I would. I was finally able to learn the book knowledge and theory behind a lot of the things I was already doing at work. The best thing I can say about completing my MBA is that it enhanced my ability to think. I now have a broader knowledge base from which to draw from. Knowing that gives me a tremendous boost of confidence.

Now, the question is “What’s next?” I’ve gained my freedom, I’ve completed my 2-year program, learned a ton, and now feel an overwhelming sense of obligation to fucking do something with it. But what? I don’t know yet. I have ideas, but nothing concrete. The most interesting part of my ideas is that almost none of them involve what I would call real work, 9-to-5 employment. It’s as though finishing this education has convinced me that my path to happiness likely lies somewhere other than where I am now. I’m now committed, more than ever, to finding the one thing that will allow me to support my family and be equally satisfying all at the same time. I must find what that is.

I’m bursting with creative ideas right now. It’s as though I removed some mental block once school was done and now the floodgates are open. I have a years-in-the-making documentary I want to finally edit. I have a screenplay I want to write (actually I have three, but one at a time). And I have other film, comedy, and podcast ideas that are just waiting for me to start. It’s an exciting time. The next challenge is out there. I will find it and my tens of fans will be the first to know.