It’s the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.
The military has a number of different career fields, not all of which require stunning brilliance (nor even good spelling). The more “cushy” enlisted jobs, though, do require skill in the written word. Even a number of the “non-cushy” jobs, such as Military Police, require competence in spelling, grammar, and exposition. The military is also very big on people getting things done on time.
If your normal bedtime is 5 or 6 am, then you have serious problems with time management. Time management is a necessary skill if you wish to get ahead in the military, in the business world, in research, or in academia. Showing up for work or class every single day dead tired is not a good idea.
Bren_Cameron, I’ve always had difficulty in school. It’s been a subject of much concern for my parents, teachers, and shrinks through the years, and I’ve been kinda worried about it myself (although my mom was much better at worrying about it than I was), especially since my standardized test scores were always pretty high (I actually won a $1000 scholarship based on my performance on the STAR tests my sophmore year). So, it’s not just a college thing.
featherlou, I’m well aware of the options other than a 4-year degree program - my school is a Jr. college with many certificate programs available, and I’ve been considering going to “secretary school”. However, my mom and I don’t want to spend my money training me in something I may not be interested in once I’m done, and I don’t really have any marketable skills I’d be interesting in beefing up at the moment. I’m going to volunteer where my mom works (she’s a physical therapist with the county), doing fileing and seeing if I’d want to do secretary stuff.
Monty, thanks for the information about military jobs. It looks like even if I wanted them (which I don’t), they wouldn’t want me, huh? Oh well. And I don’t know if I really have time management issues so much as I’m naturally nocturnal (always have been). Also, it’s a 5PM class, so it’s not like I’m dragging myself in on 4 hours of sleep. I realize that nocturnalism isn’t exactly a trait that’d endear me to businesses, though, and I intend to get my sleep schedule back on a more normal pattern. Eventually.
I haven’t done Cybersociety Kayeby. But I presume Michael is still lecturing. The HPS/Social Theory/Comp. dept is such an incestuous little department that I doubt he would have vacated the seat at this juncture! I’m hoping he will hang around for a while. because he is just a gorgeous hunk of bloke…my libido goes crazy just seeing him in the Old Arts hallways!
Volunteering with your mom is a great idea - I wish I had done more research into my various careers before embarking on them. If you’re naturally nocturnal, you might want to look into hospital-related careers - hospitals usually have night shifts. You could be a night-admitting clerk at a hospital, make a killer wage, and work nights - everybody wins!
It might not hurt to look into the military again. There’s lots of jobs – particularly in the Air Force – that don’t have strenuous physical demands or require great brilliance, and for an investment of $1800 during your first year active duty, you will be eligible for $40,000-plus in college benefits upon completion of three years of active duty.
Young Tiger is currently undergoing the Air Force enlistment process; like you, he’s intelligent and capable, but lacks self-discipline, time management skills, and solid study habits. He managed to flunk out of college in his first year, not through any lack of brainpower but because of his problems in these other areas. He’s also not physically inclined – although obviously has to be in decent physical shape; your scoliosis could be a problem, but if it’s minor, probably not (unless you’ve had surgery with hardware inserted – which would probably be a deal-breaker), and he’s also philosophically not wildly crazy about what the military does. But he’s coming to realize that while it would be really nice if we didn’t NEED a military, nevertheless in today’s world we have to HAVE a military, and that just about the safest place to be in an armed conflict is flying a desk well behind the lines somewhere.
My suggestion: At least go talk to a recruiter. Who knows, you might find out that it’s a good chance to develop some of that self-motivation and self-discipline you don’t currently have enough of, while also coming out of it with a solid opportunity to go back to college and finish up properly this time. And it’s really not such a bad life. (But do ask up front about the scoliosis.)
Small update: turns out that I couldn’t go military even if I wanted to, 'cause my scoli-curve is pretty bad (I have a double curve, both of them around 20 degrees), and because I was on ADD meds for most of my school years (from 1st grade to 8th grade). Otherwise, maybe it would’ve been worth looking into.
Also, I dropped the class. It was a summer class, which means all the work of a normal semester crammed into half the time, and since I missed a day I wouldn’t have been able to catch up. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.
teleute12, on a more serious note, have you tried finding a counsellor (school, psychological, best friend, M.D., whoever) to help you sort through this situation? Your writing is quite coherent. (You might want to run it through a spell-checker and you could use an editor, but it is lucid, engaging, and superior to the writing of 85% (perhaps 90% or better) of the English-speaking population.) Obviously you are both sufficiently intelligent and sufficiently literate to handle college classes.
You mention ADD and you talk of losing jobs and failing classes. Those are not issues related to intelligence or education, but to attitude and desire. You might want to try to sort out exactly what you want to do with your life before you expend more effort failing to meet your goals. I suspect that such an effort will require outside help. (Not because you are "nuts’ or “defective,” but because you seem to have run into a wall pursuing it by yourself.) Are you seeing any one for the ADD? Specialist or Family Practitioner? We are learning that many people never “grow out” of ADD. If you are no longer being treated for it, look up your county family services department and see whether they can help. If you are still being treated for it, make sure your physician/psychiatrist knows about all the problems you’ve been having (job and school)–not just any issues that seem to be particular to the Attention Deficit.
A professional may recognize issues that you can’t see from the inside. (This is not a cure-all. You are still going to have to make a serious effort to work this out, yourself. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking that you have to do it alone or without professional assistance.)
