Re: Long Journeys

A big inspiration...
well done, and Congrats!

On 3/11/10, Tolulope Ogunsina <togunsina_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> Hearty Cheers!
> Congrats!
>
>
> On 3/11/10, Piotr Kaluzny <piotrk_at_ipexpert.com> wrote:
>> Contgratulations. Well deserved, to say the least :)
>>
>> --
>> Piotr Kaluzny
>> CCIE #25665 (Security), CCSP, CCNP
>> Sr. Support Engineer - IPexpert, Inc.
>> URL: http://www.IPexpert.com
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 7:24 AM, <laidlaw_at_consecro.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I am going to apologize up front for this long story and thank everybody
>>> who makes it to the end.
>>>
>>> Like many other on this forum, I have read many letters like this one.
>>> For me, it seemed that sometimes the goals you set seem just outside your
>>> grasp. Slowly that goal becomes just a dream you had once. For me,
>>> taking a CCNA level class from then to-be CCIE Dave Genton got me hooked
>>> on Cisco and networking in general, and the goal was a CCIE. CCNA in
>>> '99, CCNP in 2000 but soon family and life began to take hold and thing
>>> didn't come so easily after that. Like many others, failing the first
>>> time, in '02, was an eye opening experience and I learned first hand just
>>> how high the bar was set. Later in '03, I half-heartedly tried to get
>>> back into study mode but I failed to keep an eye on the calendar and
>>> didn't drop my date before the old 30-day mandatory pay period. At the
>>> time, my wife and I were expecting our second child and some
>>> complications forced me to forfeit my seat. It was an expensive lesson
>>> to say the least. I lost all motivation as my goal seem farther away
>>> then when I started (in addition to $1250 more expensive). Paying for a
>>> lab that I never got to take drained my motivation and I lost all desire
>>> to continue.
>>>
>>> In '07 I got my first taste of MPLS and I was again hooked on new
>>> technology. With a group of very motivated coworkers, we all set off
>>> down the service provider track. I was fascinated by the technology and
>>> I quickly re-found my motivation. I passed the metro-ethernet written
>>> right before Cisco consolidated the written exams and took my first
>>> attempt at the SP lab 3 months later. Although I thought I was ready,
>>> the lab proved otherwise. My only consolation was a 100% on the MPLS
>>> section, which at the time didn't seem like much. Work quickly took all
>>> my available time and once again, policy got the best of me. I knew you
>>> had 18 months from the date you passed the written to attempt the lab,
>>> but I didn't pay any attention to the fact that you must attempt the lab
>>> again within 12 months. Having only been 15 months since I passed the
>>> written, my mind was somewhere else when it expired. Again upset at
>>> policy, I shelved my dream and went back to work.
>>>
>>> A 1200 mile move, 2 jobs and 2 years later, I found myself back in the
>>> hunt. Armed with addition preparation materials, courtesy of the
>>> extremely generous Antonio Soares, I was back on my way. After retaking
>>> the written, 4 months of hard study, I was back in RTP taking the lab.
>>> Things were going so smooth through the first couple of sections. That
>>> is when I should have known better. I did my usual prep and read ahead
>>> to identify land minds. 45 minutes into the test and getting to the
>>> PPPoE section, I noticed that the client-side config was already there.
>>> Up to that point I was just configuring things so I hadn't noticed but I
>>> knew there was no way any of the PPPoE stuff would be preconfigured and I
>>> notified the proctor. Looking back it was certainly worth a laugh, but
>>> Howard informed me that the grader failed to reset my lab and I had
>>> someone else configs on my rack. The rack wasn't even setup for the
>>> topology I had been given. Howard, being the cool guy he is, kept a
>>> smile on his face, started the reset procedure and let me sit and read
>>> the lab while things restarted. Now this by itself is highly unusual and
>>> hopefully not something that most people get to experience, but it takes
>>> close to 45 minutes for the rack to fully reload. If you thought it was
>>> tense doing the lab, imaging sitting in there with nothing to do but look
>>> at your test booklet and listen to the clock tick by. So Howard comes by
>>> letting me know I can restart the test but all my work to that point was
>>> gone because the restart obviously clears everything, so I have to
>>> restart from the beginning.
>>>
>>> I gave it a good go. Howard let me work through lunch (not sure I would
>>> have eaten anyway) and I skipped time consuming sections for the low
>>> hanging fruit in a crazy race against time. I came close to finishing
>>> but knew it wasn't good enough. A 3am score report email confirmed what
>>> I already knew, another swing and a miss.
>>>
>>> Now my wife and kids have been really good sports to this point but 9
>>> years and 3 attempts seemed like long enough and I was ready to give it
>>> up for good. After telling the crazy lab story to my wife and a few
>>> coworkers, I finally had enough prodding to open a support case with
>>> Cisco. Several days later, unexpectedly, I received a voucher to retake
>>> the test. 2 very big projects took up most of the next 8 months and in
>>> December I finally started looking for lab dates. I was very surprised
>>> that there was nothing for almost 6 months in any location and I began to
>>> get very nervous. My last lab was March 24th, my voucher would expire in
>>> early April and with the 90 day window, I had only 8 days to find a lab
>>> seat before I would be almost totally SOL. On December 21st, with only 3
>>> days left, a seat opened in RTP for March 9th. Now looking back and
>>> knowing what I know now, it must have been a scheduling glitch but that's
>>> OK, I like glitches in my favor.
>>>
>>> Despite bad weather and delayed flights, I made it to RTP in one piece.
>>> The morning started early because I suck at finding my way around RTP
>>> despite the fact that I had almost spent enough time there to qualify as
>>> a NC resident. I arrived on-site at 7am and met the new RTP proctor,
>>> Kelly (I am sorry if I got your name wrong, I was too focused on the lab
>>> and I suck with names). Due to the proctor change and the lab seats
>>> being locked out (really glad the system glitched and let me schedule),
>>> there was me and one other guy taking the lab that day and it was a
>>> little different being almost by yourself. I still started out by double
>>> checking that there was nobody else's configs loaded and after a clean
>>> bill of health, away I went. I walked out knowing I gave it my best and
>>> thankful nothing weird happened. This was it though, win lose or draw,
>>> the final attempt.
>>>
>>> I think the worst part of the test is between roughly 3:30 and when you
>>> get your score. I had flown all the way home and had been driving for
>>> about 10 minutes when the email came in. I couldn't decide if it was
>>> good or bad to get a score that soon. I thought, "Did so bad it didn't
>>> take long to fail, huh?". I called my wife and had her deliver the bad
>>> new. CCIE #25959.
>>>
>>>
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>
> --
> Best Regards,
>
> Tolulope.
>
>
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Received on Thu Mar 11 2010 - 11:48:47 ART