Comments on: https://princessleia.com/journal/2002/11/10691/ Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph's public journal about open source, mainframes, beer, travel, pink gadgets and her life near the city where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars. Mon, 04 Nov 2002 23:29:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 By: DragonsFire https://princessleia.com/journal/2002/11/10691/comment-page-1/#comment-21803 Mon, 04 Nov 2002 23:29:00 +0000 http://princessleia.com/journal/?p=10691#comment-21803 It’s hard to know what to do. My advice is to go with your gut, I guess, but don’t take the “easy way” out. (my gut always tells me to take the easy way out)
I’ll give you a scenario.
1. In high school, a young guy, let’s call him Bob, was a pothead and had no real ambition. After high school, Bob gets his shit together and goes to a community college. After community college, Bob (who has no familial financial support) transfers to a very prestigious and hard to get into University in southern California. He gets his financial aid and takes out $30,000 worth in loans and spends the next 3 years getting his BS in Biochemistry, only to graduate and realize the degree means nothing without working experience in the lab. Bob, now 24, currently has no career in the field he studied for 3 years in college, his car is broken and irreplacable without at least $3000, and he’s basically living paycheck to paycheck in one of the most expensive cities in the country to live in working a blue collar job.

Basically, going to college can be a double edged sword. In some industries, especially competitive ones, while you have to have the degree to get the job, you can’t get the job without working experience. It’s easy to be lazy and just sit around.. you and I are very similar in that aspect, as I fall into the same patterns when I’m on a break from school. I’m 22 and have never had a real job. I go to a tough school, and it’s slowly breaking me down and making me work for what I want. Sometimes you just have to force yourself.. lest you get lazy and end up like Bob, who didn’t try his best, only got a 2.5 GPA, and didn’t work in the field while he was in school.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say in this long ass blog is basically that if you do decide to go to school, make it count. Don’t waste your money and your time. Be prepared to give it 110%. I wasn’t and I almost blew it. Fortunately, “Bob” came into my life and showed me what would happen if I stayed on my lazy and contented path.

Problems never go away, and pessimism is an unfortunate way to look at the world. All the pessimists I know are always miserable, and while my life is no piece of cake, I am content for the most part in not-so-great situations because I look at things from a more objective and optimistic perspective.
Thanks for coming by and subbing. We seem to be alike, that much I can tell from just this one blog of yours.. and I’d like to give you advice and friendship if you need it.

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