Hi everyone,
I'm a member at THR and I was told about APS by one of the mods here, and I figured I'd be better off posting this here than anywhere else.
Here goes. I'm a college student. I have little money, and am not really a fan of working while I'm taking classes. I think it's more important to put my education first, so that I don't have to spend the rest of my life working meaningless jobs like the ones I would be taking right now. I hope to get a job over the summer, and just save as much as I can, but I still worry about
I'm a psychology major, and I'm honestly hoping to get my bachelor's in two years, then go on and get my Ph.D. and become a college professor. I honestly think that type of job would be perfect for me: I have power, but not even where I would need to worry about becoming an officious jerk, and I would be doing something I like: helping others and talking about a topic I enjoy.
But I honestly question if it's worth it. I mean, I honestly want to be moving out of my mom's house within a few years. I want my own place. I want my privacy. I want to have a stable place I can call my own without fear of judgment from others.
I'm not sure how I could possibly move out with no money while trying to pursue a graduate degree.
So what the hell can I do? How do other people do it? Am I just stuck living at home until I'm almost 30? Or is there something I'm missing?
I'm under the impression many of you are older than I, so I'm hoping for the experience of others to help me out here. And please be kind--I'm new here.
Dude I'm not gonna ream you like some of these people here, but let me give you a little perspective. I graduated with my Bachelors in 2003, went into an industry which was complete crap and got burned real bad, grew up a little bit and better realized that the real world is a bitch, and am now going back to school again for an MBA. I didn't make any real money while I worked and leaving the job I did have has put me in a bad spot in a lot of ways, but I have been working since I was 17. The only reasons I have gaps in my employment history is that jobs seem to come in little spurts. You'll look for 3 months and find nothin', then suddenly you'll get three offers.
We're a lot alike. I've thought about being a college professor too. Granted I started in mathematics and moved on to accountancy and business, but the similarity is there.
I worked two jobs as an undergraduate. I've currently only got one job but I'm working at getting promoted to full time hours in six months and am looking for something else to supplement income.
Most of the work in my life has been, well, shitake mushrooms. Pardon my French. I've done warehousing, apartment maintenance, worked at a gas station, worked in a lumber yard, and am currently slaving away in the world of big box store retail. I've swallowed my pride and taken help where I could get it. I try to find as much financial aid as possible.
I've learned not to waste my time and to make sacrifices. I don't really have friends so much as classmates and coworkers. I'll be up until 2 AM tonight after getting home at 12:30 AM to finish one part of one assignment, and then tomorrow I'll sleep in until 10 AM , finish the second part, and go to work and get home at 12:30 AM again and repeat. That will be my weekend. I'll take an hour and a half of each day plus my meal breaks to screw around, probably on this website. That'll be the only wasted time and I'm wasting it on purpose to keep my sanity. While other people are going to concerts and drinking Buds, you get your butt behind a cash register and punch the clock, or deliver pizzas.
And to be honest I know people who work a hell of a lot harder than I do, and longer hours. My life is not so bad in comparison.
Truthfully I wish I'd been 25 before I went to college for the first time. I made a lot of dumb mistakes when I was 18-21, my priorities were not as well adjusted as they are now. Don't get me wrong I could have done much worse.
How bad do you want it? Life is a series of competing moralities and opportunity costs. Yes, ideally we should all live on our own and be able to study while fully using our special talents to maximum economic profit. Doesn't happen for most people. I have a college degree I don't even use any more and I currently make squat. While this is frustrating because I know I personally can perform more advanced tasks for better pay, I have to keep in mind I'm paying my dues for a chance to be a better commodity on the job market later. And if I really want it bad enough, I will make it happen.
If nothing else, your undergrad degrees do give you a slight edge. At the job I applied for, the fact I had a degree, any degree, plus experience got me in to the best job that company had to offer me at the present time. I got to turn down two lower paying jobs for the one I took. Every dime counts.
Make damn sure you can make a living at whatever it is you do. If a lot of people seem to quit in that field, there's probably a darn good reason why. People our age have been fed this crap that "If you enjoy your job nothing else will matter" and it's a load of bull. In the real world most people hate their job. I work with fifty something year old people whose ambition in life was not to be a stockboy, but guess what they've been doing for the past 30 years? Just go for something tolerable and find the best overall compromise between what you really want. I've learned this the hard way. I wish I could go back in time to meet the 18 year old me and kick my own butt.
But the #1 thing that has saved my butt is that I am still single. The Good Book says it's good to be single and I agree. I'm not saying don't have a s/o, just don't get married, no kids, and make sure the other person understands that. It's not that these things make it impossible, it's just a hell of a lot easier when your time is your own.
Put things in perspective. Most of my professors didn't get to be professors until they were in their late forties. My own father drove trucks and staked lines for many hard years before he actually became valued for his engineering expertise and was promoted to CEO. I'd like to be a PhD some day, and to be honest while I sometimes am frustrated with my situation in life, working on my master's while working at an honest but low paying job has given me a sense of purpose and a sense of cleanliness and honesty I haven't felt in years.
Edit: It's only fair to mention to some of these nice folks is that even with inflation considered, tuition is more expensive than ever and fees at most universities are outrageous. I'm not saying people who graduated in earlier years didn't work hard or make sacrifices, but I last attended in 2003. Coming back in 2007, the prices have skyrocketed to well over 150% of what it was four years ago!