[rammstein]

Esteemed members of the board-

I have owned my car for over a year now, and I've been fixing little things here and there, nothing major. Before I got it, I never fixed anything. I envy those around me with mechanical know-how. Who I envy even more is my current mechanic. He works for himself. He specializes in Porsches, he works in a converted barn behind his house. That is his job.

Now about me. I have been scholastically driven since my youth. Not because I liked school (I hated it) but because the light at the end of the tunnel was always supposed to be a big $$ corporate job upon finishing college. I completed a business degree from Carnegie Mellon and got an engineering position with a large company in Cincinnati. I've been working here now for 1.5 years. I do make decent money, particularly in this "climate of uncertainty". Every day I wake up and say "Why am I bothering with this?". I sit in my cubicle all day, thinking about what I'd rather be doing. Basically I've come to realize I've been sprinting all along towards an ultimate end that does not satisfy me.

OK- now for the FUN stuff-
I have decided to leave my current job and enter a world of uncertainty. I have no kids, no real responsibilities, so I see it as now or never. I am moving to Boston to live with my girlfriend who I've been apart from for 2 years. When I get there, I want to go to school to learn everything I need to know about automotive mechanics. So I am hoping for advice from anybody here who has already taken this path in life. Its scary for me, because its uncharted and I don't know where to start. What schools should I look at? Should I try to get an unpaid apprenticeship at a shop? I'd be grateful for any words of wisdom. And if anybody wanted to talk on the phone, I'd be thrilled to get all the information I can.

And its odd, but even though I am scared as hell of resetting my life, I feel alive again.