Re: Long Journeys

It's good to never give up. Congratulations!

On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 11:48 AM, Oluwatobi Ogundolapo <
tobiogundolapo_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
> >>>
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> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > Best Regards,
> >
> > Tolulope.
> >
> >
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-- 
Olumayokun Fowowe
Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net