Get your degree and stick it out with your job. Ask your Godfather for financial help. Perhaps to save your pride, ask him for a loan. Chances are he will wave it off the payments anyways, but at least you don’t feel like you are begging. If you don’t approach him, you will always have that niggling feeling of “what if I did talk to him, would I still be living in this crappy apartment?”
Learn from me.Dear God, please learn from me. I didn’t know dick about scholarships. I didn’t know dick about grants .Neither did my widowed mother or my mensa-moronic brothers.It also did not help that my family thought I was a nice girl but not smart.(Irony is, is everyone looks to me for answers and always has, so go figure.) So there was no push from that area to excel. I was too frickin’ naive, shy and moronic
(but in a good way) to ask for help and assumed that a kid like me would never qualify for one of those oddball “If your great grandmother was a whore in New Orleans” scholarship funds. I probably could have gotten a few of the scholarships because my dad was a WW2 veteran. I busted my ass working two jobs and going to school full time. I burned out in under a year. I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up and bailed on the community college thing.
Fortunately, I have an excellent work ethic which has made me a supervisor in every job I’ve ever held. I am extremely articulate, responsible and a host of other superlatives that every boss wants. For a non-college graduate, I’ve made ok money with shitty benefits, but hated either my bosses or my career. Sometimes one at a time or all at once,mostly because I knew and know that I was a hell of alot smarter than what I was doing.Even my bosses and clients would say this to me. My motto for my twenties was,
" Working beneath my potential."
PLEASE do not do what I did. I’m 33 and really need to set a new course in my life and haven’t a clue of where to start or what I want to do for the next thirty years.
I’m at a major cross roads and if I don’t do something soon I’m going to end up braindead like my neighbors. (Sorry, must be post partum crap that has me so depressed right now…but it’s not.)
Everyone’s advice was right on the ball. Where in the hell were you guys when I was floundering at 20?
Whoa, really? Time for this descendant of French Huguenots to look more seriously into the scholarship/grant scene. <g> Just call me Gossett.
I hear ya, Swimming (btw, are you the same SwimmingRiddles from the AoL X-Files boards?).
[juvenile complaining] I’m eighteen and in my first year, third quarter of community college. My grades are good, my tuition is paid by financial aid, and things are going pretty well except for the massive lack of lucre. The texts are obscenely expensive: $100 for a poorly printed paperback?
I obviously need to get some sort of job, but my morning class times and glaring lack of experience hold me back.
Honestly, though, I don’t see how I’m going to be able to handle even a part-time job and still keep my grades up. I’m only taking 14 credits, and pretty easy classes at that (english 102, religion, drama), but the work is time consuming.
Damn! I’m too young for this. I want to be ten years old again. I want my parents to take care of me. ::sniffle:: [/juvenile complaining]
Question: What do you do when you’re supposed to give two work references, and the only real work you’ve ever done is babysitting for a family who has since moved far away?
Kiva [OtherBoardTalk] Yep, that be me. But I haven’t had time lately to be addicted to two boards, so I’ve been sticking with this one. Anything interesting over there? Bet they went ape shit over Saturday’s ep…OKRA!!![/OtherBoardTalk] But seriously, what about work/study? It doesn’t pay much (not enough for SwimmingRiddles to live on, anyway), but you can study on the job, usually.
Shirley, that is exactly what I have been doing, and I think posts like yours and Athena’s have helped me the most. I HATE the concept of debt, but I am beginning to see that it is something I have to do.
Have I told you guys lately that you rock?
A little persistance goes a long way. Announcing:
“I go on guilt trips a couple of time a year. Mom books them for me.” A custom made Wally .sig!
I’m not sure about this because I haven’t acutally done it, but doesn’t money made from work-study go directly towards tuition, etc.? If it does, it probably won’t help you much. Maybe you should look into on-campus jobs like working at a computer lab. All you do is answer dumb quesions (“How do I print?”).
Here’s my two cents, which ain’t much for those tuition payments. You seem very committed to your interests and passions. Drone jobs do not fit you. That’s obvious. Your goal, child psych., is definitely not a drone job. Good. How do you get there is the problem.
I would suggest volunteering. Do a little research into any AmeriCorp positions near you. They pay you in education grants, its incredible experience (resume-wise), and its AN incredible experience (life enriching-wise). You say you love children. Think about Inner City Teaching Corp. Volunteer work is an incredible opportunity.
I was a 3rd grade teacher for about a year. Was absolutely horrible at it, but I don’t regret a minute of it. Do it now while you can, if that’s what interests you. Tempt the fates.
I ask not what you can do for me, but what you can do for me right now.
Ironically, in reading through Shirley’s posts, I notice that neither of us bothered to actually FINISH college. I know in my case it was certainly because of the lure of making money was more important to me that finishing school. I dropped out ten years ago to “work for a while” and here I am, still working. For a while I kept saying that once I figured out what I wanted a degree in, I’d go back to school. Now I don’t even bother to say that.
[brag ON]'course, I can’t really complain too much. My job is dull, but I’ve made enough $$ at it that I’ll probably retire by the time I’m 33.[/brag OFF] That is, if the #@#! NASDAQ ever picks back up. All in all, I’ve done much better screwing around with computers than I’d ever have done with that lucrative Greek & Latin degree.
That said, Swimming, I’d say it’s time to make a decision. Either decide yer gonna be a student, and take out some loans and restrict yourself to really, really low-key jobs (ie, 10 hours a week at a dorm cafeteria that incidentally also feeds you) or throw yourself whole heartedly into your work (ie, go get a job that you LIKE, and do well at it.) Don’t do the half and half thing - it’ll kill ya.
And remember - drink your coffee BEFORE leaving the house. Get that through your head, and you’ll go far.
I actually applied to join AmeriCorps, but I was late in the application process, and didn’t get in. My good friend did, though, and hated it, and dropped out with two months to go. Her team was full of self-rightous morons who were volunteering only for the ability to say that they spent a year volunteering, not to actually help people. There were other reasons, but I won’t go into them. (when I looked into it, they weren’t providing any housing, and they were giving you something like $600 a month to live on. That’s room AND board. They suggested getting a part-time job in addition to 40 hours of “volunteer” work.)
I am already volunteering at a local pre-school, which is the high point of my week. It’s actually an inner-city subsidized pre-school, so these kids are from a whole other world. I’m learning more from them than I ever would in a classroom. If I could make enough money to live on teaching pre-school, I would. If I can manage, I want to do that as a part-time job, anyway. (last week I was taken on a “plane” ride to “Mass-eh-chooz-hits,” When I asked why were were going there, if the pilot’s grandma or grandpa lived there, I was told “::sigh:: No, you do!.”
A little persistance goes a long way. Announcing:
“I go on guilt trips a couple of time a year. Mom books them for me.” A custom made Wally .sig!
In a word, no. The money is paid directly to the student. Money from my various work-study jobs was my only source of funds to live on throughout my college career (tuition and room & board were covered by scholarships, loans, and parental contributions). I spent a year and a half working in the cafeteria dish room six nights a week, was paid for a couple of years to staff the desk located at the entrance to my residence hall (duty which was scarcely ever actually performed by those paid for it, since my particular hall treated such parietal rules as remained in force in my day with complete contempt). My final two years I had two jobs: coordinating audio-viusal services in the social sciences building (setting up film projectors, VCRs, slide projectors, etc. for a trio of lecture rooms arranged in a semi-circle around my subterranean control center – great place to study since I had stereo systems for music and utter isolation, since practically no one even knew it existed – the door looked like just another panel in the main lobby wall unless you happened to notice the inconspicuous keyhole in it), and working as an assistant to the English department faculty, where my duties varied from preliminary marking of lower-level student papers and digging up articles and references in the library to help with faculty research to transcribing tapes of guest lecturers.
The pay, even for the more responsible positions, was pitiful – federal minimum wage ($3.35/hr) for some and state minimum wage ($2.75/hr, IIRC) for others that were exempt from federal minimum wage regulations. I could sometimes manage as much as 40 hours a month, if the history department had a lot of films to show, and got to keep the whole lot as my total income for the year was expected to remain below the threshold for paying income tax. So at best I had $120, but more often between $60-$80, a month to pay for any meals not eaten in the cafeteria, toiletries, school supplies, books, etc.
“Ain’t no man can avoid being born average, but there ain’t no man got to be common.” –Satchel Paige
I just came from my performance review at work. It went REALLY well, not really as my job performance goes (as I know it’s been suffering, I’m stressed so I forget little things, etc.) but as far as just talking to my boss. Noteable things [list]
[li]Apparently there has been a cutback in the demand. If this trend continues, the departmental manager would have to cut pack personell, anyway. I told her that if that happened, I wouldn’t be heartbroken, I’d work 20 hours a week and worse case scenario, take out a student loan. The RELIEF on her face was palbable. She really likes me, but if the funding isn’t there…[/li]
[li]I told her about all the crap going on in school. She promised not to hand me any new projects until the semester is over.[/li]
[li]I told her EVERYTHING about my godfather, including a lot of stuff I didn’t want to post here. She gave me some fantastic advice, the main points being ones that were posted here: If he has a ton of money, $6000 a year isn’t a big deal. He’d be upset to learn that my schoolwork is being compromised. Being Chinese, affection is hard for him to express. He expresses it best by giving things away. It might genuinely make him happy to give me money. My boss said that she complains when her kids ask for money, but deep down, she’s happy they feel comfortable enough to ask, and if it has to do with their education, she’s secretly glad they asked her.[/li]
::deep sigh:: It’s gonna be OK, I think.
A little persistance goes a long way. Announcing:
“I go on guilt trips a couple of time a year. Mom books them for me.” A custom made Wally .sig!
Well, SR, (may I call you SR?) First of all, I’m a bit too young to be your daddy, maybe we need some other term. What sort of credentials are you looking for? All I can offer you is meaningful conversation, joyous laughter, a chance to live your dreams, and enough money that we wouldn’t starve.( You do like ramen noodles, right? ) Yes, there may be a billion people in China who understand Eastern philosophy (though I bet their grasp of Hinduism is a bit shaky ) but how many of them would know that the quote on your website is from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory? My guess is not too many. BTW, I’m great with kids.
Swimming,
“all things” predictably instigated a “Did they/didn’t they?” frenzy. Feh. All I can say is Too Little Too Late.
Congratulations on your performance review! Sounds like it went great, and you have a really nice boss.
