When Dreams Die (Or at least get put on hold)

On February 21st, 2013 I failed the CCIE R&S lab for the 5th time.

I've been working towards the CCIE for about 2.5 years now.  I passed the written in Jan 2011, and I've been working on the lab ever since.  I've put nearly my entire life, both personal and professional, on hold while I've chased this dream.  That's been a luxury that has caught up with me finally and now my attention must be focused in other areas.  I am no longer able to spend weekday evenings, and the majority of my weekends in my den, with my rack, furiously typing away on the CLI.

I'm hoping I can still get a hour or two here and there to at least keep things fresh in my mind.  Maybe come late fall or winter I will be better prepared to ramp up again for another attempt.  But in the meantime I need to look at buying a house, move to a new city, focus on work and some partner related certifications that my employer would like me to get, and deal with a couple neglected customers.

I still plan to post up here as much as I can.  I had always intended to keep this going post CCIE.  I even have a few ideas about some things I'd like to do in making this more of a full site beyond simple blog posts.  Maybe this hiatus will allow me to do some of that.

Thanks to everyone who stops by here and reads what I put out.  And thanks to everyone who's helped me along the way so far.  With a little luck I can be back on the trail sooner rather than later.