I admire your actions Chris
I was drafted in 71, spent 10 years in the Army, got out to finish my degree, finished it, recalled in 91 for Desert Storm. I decided to stay in and finish my military career and retire. Upon retirement I got a job as a government contractor and was hounded by my boss to get my Masters. At that time I was heavily into astromony imaging and had a lot of money tied into the hobby. When I went back to school I found I could no longer conduct imaging because I would think I could only stay out a couple of hours and it always ended up being an all nighter. Then you just never recoup the lack of sleep and your studies suffer. I finally had to just sell everything off, because as long as I had the equipement I would give in to the fun side.
It took two long years of working an average 4 hours everynight and all weekend doing school work, but I finished my graduate degree and it paid off. Self improvement, especially in education, will always benefit you in the future. I always believed if you want to get ahead in life you have to sacrifice some times the things you would rather be doing.
So good luck with your education and I am sure you will realize the sacrifice you make now will pay off in the end. I still have not got back into astronomy imaging, but did start building models again.
Charlie