This week, I’ll be in Columbus, Ohio in hopes of becoming a Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE). This certification is highly regarded and is only achieved by passing a five-and-a-half-hour hands-on exam. Jen and Nicky will be dropping me off at the airport to pick up the rental car around noon tomorrow. From there I drive straight to my hotel. The training location is the building next door to the hotel which will make mornings really easy since I won’t have to fight traffic or parking.
As you might have guessed, I chose Columbus as the training location as a way to get RIT to pay for me to visit with Todd, Marcie, and Abbie. RIT was going to pay for the training no matter what, and since the closest locations were Toronto, Boston, or Columbus, I chose Columbus. Even though Jen and Nicky will be staying home, I will be bringing the MacBook Pro with. This way Jen and Nicky will be able to video chat with those of us in Columbus.
I’ve been wanting to have some sort of certification that says I’m good at what I do with computers, specifically Linux, for a while now. This is the perfect opportunity and I am really looking forward to it. In the same breath, I am going to miss my wife and son like crazy. It’s only for 6 days and we’ll be sure to talk lots via phone and video chat. I just know that Nicky is doing amazing things practically daily that I don’t want to miss. However, this was my choice and it’s the right thing to do in order to further my career.