T-SQL Tuesday #008: Gettin’ Schooled

Posted in Uncategorized on July 13th, 2010 by admin – 3 Comments

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It is time again for T-SQL Tuesday, or how it’s referred to in the twitterverse #tsql2sday. This month’s topic, hosted by Robert Davis (Blog|Twitter), is all about school. When I think back to school two references always come to musical references come to mind and not neither of them are Lady Gaga. No, two “old school” favorites are Alice Cooper and Pink Floyd. Their songs, “Schools Out” and “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)”, though having very different meanings both received their fair share of time in my car stereo back in high school. Back when I listened to these songs I saw school and education as something I just needed to do until I got a bachelors in college then I would be done.

Now with as I look back with Bachelors in hand and also my MBA I find myself making up for lost time. In high school I wanted nothing more than to be done so that I could get out into the world and make a little money. I worked all through school mostly full time and spend every free moment with friends and doing whatever I could to enjoy my time. It was only half way through college that I actually started to figure out what this education thing was all about. In fact I realized just how interested I was in education. I found myself reading books of all forms fiction and non-fiction, looking for ways to improve my skills both technically and personally.

Now as I slowly become a bit of a more seasoned professional, in a new job and spending any free time I can find reading and tinkering I find my outlook on education in a complete 180. I see that I did have a lot of fortune to be able to finish what I started and use my drive and determination to get me where I am. Now as I look back I find that my next evolution in education is to strive to be an educator. Not so much a professional teacher (yet?) but as I dig further into the land of databases and technology in general it is a lot like my math classes back in the day. There are great teachers and poor teachers but little in the middle. My hope is that I could be the former and help people learn and grow themselves.

The best thing about where I am in this journey it that I find myself here right in the middle of what I see as one of the most interesting online communities to form. The SQL Server community including the various user groups, PASS and others all function because it is full of individuals that all share, teach and help grow one and other. I look forward to sharing the knowledge I have in future blog posts, user group meetings, SQL Saturdays and hopefully in national conferences like SQLPASS in the future.