I’m doing what I’ve wanted to do since I was 15…
And yes, my job sucks.
What I do doesn’t but my job sucks
Lamia, I think that the point was that if I became a dancer I could make a lot more money and although I would still not be fully utilizing my intellectual potential, I’d be better paid for it.
These boys weren’t the brightest bulbs in the box which is probably why I looked like the proverbial rocket scientist to them.
“Deposed dictator of a small South American country.”
should shut the up fairly quickly.
“I figure I’ll just piss the whole thing away by living. How’s that?”
And to those who spout things like “legacy” and “making your mark”, I say;
In 100 years or less, your “mark” will be gone. In ten thousand years, all of our ‘marks’ will be gone. Spend your life sweating over that sand castle. It will be gone with the morning tide.
“I figure I’ll just piss the whole thing away by living. How’s that?”
And to those who spout things like “legacy” and “making your mark”, I say;
In 100 years or less, your “mark” will be gone. In ten thousand years, all of our ‘marks’ will be gone. Spend your life sweating over that sand castle. It will be gone with the morning tide.
Audrey Levins, you’ve mentioned that you’re married, haven’t you? Because I think you’re keen.
See? I hear this scolding crap all the time, and it isn’t helping. Some people imply that if I don’t immediately go to college after H.S, I’m going to be poor for the rest of my life. And somehow I’m a loser because I’m not going into the military or otherwise moving out of the house the instant after I graduate like THEY are.
Well, I’ll relate what my husband went through. He too, was unsure just what he wanted to do after HS. When we were dating, (He’d graduated by then.) we’d talk about what we wanted to do in the future. I love art, and hope to someday be well enough to get a career teaching art therapy to disabled children.
He would scratch his head and say, “I just don’t know, I want to improve my mind, but looking at my parents I just don’t know about a degree.” (His dad has a chemistry degree, and is not currently working in his chosen feild. His mom has a microbiology degree, and teaches people who want to get their GED’s. Ironic, huh?)
I finally asked him one day, “What catches your interest, what would you like to spend your life doing?” He got embarassed, and finally admitted that he’d always wanted to go into welding. I said, “Well, why not? I hear they pay well, and that they are always in demand too.” So, he’s going for it. He’s going to go to trade school and get fully certified as a welder. (He’s taking a college course on blacksmithing and forge welding as I type this. He’s considering blacksmithing as a sideline, people still buy handmade stuff, enough to be able to provide some nice extras.)
Do what feels right to you. If you don’t know what you’d like yet, go out and “sample life” until something catches your interest. I’d say taking a few college courses is not a bad idea at all, just to stay sharp. (It’s much harder to get back into studying every day if you’ve gone quite a while without it.) Your chosen vocation may not be learned in college, but taking courses to improve yourself is admirable too. (I try to learn something new every day, so I can remain viable.) Just generally go out, and try out various things, but try to keep your intellect “fresh” too.
Good luck. 
Money isn’t everything.
It isn’t nothing, but it isn’t everything. Poorer does not equal unhappier.
For that matter, poorer does not equal poor. Sure, the average income for college-educated people may be higher. That doesn’t mean all college-educated people earn more than all non-college-educated people. I don’t think you meant it that way, *TaxGuy, but I wanted to expound.
I’m 15, and I know what I want to do with MY life. I want to be a lInguist and/or translater and go overseas, make a heap of money, and fall in love some handsome european.
Of course, in a few weeks, I’l probably want to be a lawyer, or some odd thing like that… I’m already past the whole “I want to be famous” Phase, and i’m just starting to get into the “I want to help people” phase.
But when I’m in between phases, and people ask me what It is I want to do with my life, I just give them my sweetest, evilest grin, and say “you don’t want to know”. And I end it at that.
grumble
How come no one ever asked me what I wanted to do with my life? I have all these smartass responses to shoot back but now that I’m about to leave high school too, my chances of using them are growing smaller by the day!
My older daughter’s school counselor scared the crap out of her last week by pulling her out of class to ask her what college she hopes to attend and what she’s done to make that possible. He asked her what field she hoped to pursue (she told him art) and then talked to her about various colleges and their engineering programs for 45 minutes.
She’s 13 and in seventh grade. I told her if it happens again, she should just nod thoughtfully and say, “You’ve certainly given me a lot to think about.” Or, alternately, she could just reassure him that she’s not being raised by wolves and her parents have made some provision for her college education.
I told her what all the middle-aged and beyond folks are telling you: very few people know what they want to be when they grow up, even after they’ve grown up. It’s good to make plans and to work hard to achieve whatever it is you decide to do, but ultimately, life is for living.
Blalron, you’re simply a lazy good-for-nothing layabout if you don’t know what you’re going to do with your life by the time you graduate from High School. For example, when I graduated High School I knew for certain (as did pretty much everyone who knew me) that I was going to go to school, get some kind of physics and/or math degree, then go on to a PhD and become a college professor (most likely) or researcher of some sort.
Somehow, though, things just didn’t work out like that. I took a short, temporary break from school just to spend some time working and see if that was really what I wanted to do. I worked some temp jobs for a year, then moved to NYC and started doing IT stuff, and the short, temporary break has taken up most of a decade now. I considered going back to school after I got let go from my previous job just recently (lack of funding, nothing bad about me) but I found another one in less than two weeks.
So, based on my experience, I’d say go for it unless you’re tossing away a scholarship to do the temporary job and figure it out thing. Sure, on average people with degrees make more than those without, but that doesn’t mean that you have to have a degree for any job more rewarding than scrubbing toilets. Take the time now while you’re young and work for a while and figure out what you want to do, or hike across the country taking odd jobs for food, or whatever comes your way for a while. There’s no law that says you can’t mess around until you’re 20, then decide it’s not for you and buckle down, go to school, get a degree, and get a normal job.
“Plastics”
(The Graduate)
You’re suppose to have a *plan *?
Did I miss the memo?
Just tell them, " I want to be like you. Have a job I hate so I can bitch about it ad nauseum until I die of a heart attack at 45. "
Yeah, and it’s like, if I ever told them that I am almost certainly going to die face down on the curb after a severe bout of dementia after wasting my life playing games and alienating those around me, they would probably try to “help” me. It’s like, I’ve got a plan. What more do you want?
Blalron, do take the time off. You WILL change your mind. If you try and commit yourself to one course too soon, you could hurt yourself in the end.
I was under serious pressure to ‘do’ something immediately after HS, so I went to Colorado Northwestern Community College for Aviation training. I blew through my little trust fund my dad left me ($12,500) and then racked up another $13,000 in student loans to finish my CFI. Then I had a ‘moment of clarity’ and figured out that I would make a terrible pilot and probably kill myself and other people too (plus I couldn’t get a teaching job to save my life). So I was in debt, working as a delivery driver and unhappy as hell. Whoo-hoo! Glad I listened to people and got a jump-start on my life. :rolleyes:
So I went to another few community college’s (mainly to defer the student loan payments) and found out that I liked the liberal arts courses. So I applied to a bunch of higher ed schools, and good ones at that. It took 2 years, but I eventually got a scholarship to one of the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the US (The Colorado College). I was 23 when I started my first class there, graduating at 26. My life has been sweet ever since, but it took me forever to pay off those student loans.
So, while I know Lsura was joking above, that is pretty much what happened to me. I just wish I had cut out the really expensive choice in the beginning and gone to the general ed courses at the local community college while working and partying for a few years. I would have saved myself time and money to start and would have ended up in the same place in the end.
Travel if you can, or just get a job. Take a few community college courses so you can meet new people (college chicks are cool) and explore subjects that you like. Don’t commit too soon, you could really regret it.
-Tcat
I so agree with the folks who say wait. Not just because you’ll change your mind, but because you might discover heading right back to school a little distasteful. I know I did. I was sick of school. I hated high school, but my folks wanted me to immediately jump right into college.
I had no plan, I had to work because they started charging me rent, and I was really, really tired of doing school work. It sucked.
Don’t let anybody tell you taking a year off is a bad thing. It certainly isn’t.
Yea, I wanted to take a break, but I ignored it and went to college anyway. Dropped out about halfway in to finally take that break. I just re-entered and am working on my degree again, but I’m sure glad I dropped out.
And you know what, all the people that were in my college graduating class are doing worse than I am. Because they graduated into an economy where it’s hard to find a job, while I was getting experience in my crummy job and managed to get my own place, decent car, etc.
Quite right, Blalron. I wish I had waited a year or two before going to college, and just worked, or read books, or whatever. I got decent grades and my degree all right, but I was fairly aimless as a student and never felt the passion for my major the way I would now, if I could do it all over. It’s when you go to college as much as whether you go that counts.