School: DONE!

Today, one-year and 10 months later (to the day) I successfully finished my schooling!  I had passed my final class yesterday (Flashing Light) and needed to do today's assessment in the simulator with my company representative, and that was it.  Done.

It's been an amazing journey to this point, and it's gone by extremely fast, but the journey is still only in its beginning phases.  Over the next few days, I will organize all my paperwork, certificates, sea time letters, medical physical results, etc. and put them into a nice packet that will get sent to my licensing expert back east.  He will walk the packet into the Coast Guard for me and from that point, we wait.  The Coast Guard will then forward the application to the National Maritime Center and will make sure I have everything needed for the upgrade to Officer status.  If they approve the packet, they will give me the green light to test for my license.  This approval process can take anywhere from 2-8 weeks and from what I hear, it's been taking more in the 8-week range.  Once I get the green light, I will take part in a 2-week test prep session somewhere, maybe Seattle, and then take my exams in Portland, OR at the Coast Guard REC.  There's an REC in Seattle and Oakland, but since my good friends lives in Portland, I can stay with them and have a nice place to study each night before the next module.  Testing will take a week and consists of 7 modules, 2 per day.  If I pass all 7, my license will be issued shortly thereafter and the next phase of my career will be underway.

I'm still in shock that school is over and it'll probably sink in over the next few days.  I've met some really cool people and I'm going to miss sitting in class with my schoolmates.  We've had a good time, and I'm sure we'll keep in touch as we move forward in our careers. I will most likely see them during test prep unless I get approved really early and decide to do test prep in another location.

At any rate, I will post up the progress of my packet as it gets submitted and obviously the steps towards testing.  I'm nervous about testing, mostly because it's a lot of information to get tested on in a short period of time.   I'll make it though somehow, just like everything else...

Best quote I heard last week from a senior officer giving advice for new deck officers:  "Don't be the senior guy with a secret".

that tiz all.