Appreciative to have finally landed/settled with my career (at least for now)

I was really good at building web-based systems when I graduated from college in 2000…at least for the time in my head. I was quite confident about my skills to say the least (cocky is probably nowhere close to an understatement). But my problem at the time was that I hadn't yet been able to realize my vision and in a lot of ways I was pretty insecure. I was very ambitious and wanted to build really big systems—and did build some—but I wanted more skills so I went back to school so I could achieve more.

When I went back to grad school at the University of Washington Foster School of Business I learned a few things:

1. People at work and in my life expected that I was getting an MBA, not a technical degree (I was getting my MS in Information Systems at the time)
   
2. I learned A LOT about how to build systems that matter to people; I learned that business and business process is the real need and driver behind IT systems and that IT systems should play second fiddle to these more important factors. In this way I become much less of an idealistic pro-technology at all costs nerd.
   

Because of #2 above, I decided that I really didn't care too much about IT anymore and what I really wanted to do was get in management and AWAY from IT. I tried.

Fast forward two years from then to last fall when I was unemployed and needed work. I got a job as a software developer again but I was really rusty with my skills by this time even though I was probably WAY sharper analytically and from a thinking perspective than I ever had been. It took me many months (9 now?!) to feel confident with my software development skills again. I'd now say that I'm a pretty good software developer again. And I'm not worried about being one at the moment. It doesn't bother me that I'm writing code again because I know that I am also a talented analyst and project manager and I have my masters degrees and PMP certificate under my belt; my confidence is currently pretty high.

In total I guess I'm saying that I'm very thankful and appreciative right now for the roads I've been down and the place that I'm at now with my career. I'm 33 years old, 10 years out of undergrad, 5 years out of grad school, and I feel pretty good. I'm a consultant for a pretty cool company and make a pretty good wage with benefits. I like what I do. I'm technical and non-technical, businessy and nerdy at the same time. I think that I can go this way or that in my career (make choices that don't have ridiculous costs and consequences) and I really like that agility. I'm happy I finally landed here, it was a very long road.