School...

So, what exactly do you do after college? Like, everything is planned out from birth nowandays. You go from kindergarten to elementary school to junior high to high school, and GOD HELP YOU if you don't go into the dream college that your parents couldn't go to. And the way that people make it sound, what with higher rates of payment when you have a college degree, it sounds like the college itself just hands you a job along with the diploma. But is it taken for granted, being able to score a job right out of college? Is there a lame duck season between graduation and initiation into the rat race?

Honestly, I never realized how much I thought that college automatically grants you a high-paying, high-responsibility job. Adults make it sound like a.) without college, you will literally get kicked out onto the street and start selling drugs, and b.) with college, you'll immediately start making 10k a month.

Am I aware that without college, making money at a secure job is hard? Absolutely. Am I aware that with college, people will perceive you and your qualifications differently? For the most part, I agree with that. I'd say that's 99% true. I also understand that colleges make their money off of students, so a culture that depends on collegiate education can't hurt their pocketbooks.

Here's the thing, I want to go to a university. Right now, the funds aren't there, and I also have an apprenticeship going right now that is incredibly valuable to me. But that apprenticeship is going to be ending in a few years, give or take a few months, and at the end of this there is a guarantee of a job. I'm learning things I would never learn in college. I'm learning how to be a business artist, a content developer that people will respect. In the industry I am entering, what college I go to will be secondary to the studio I apprenticed in. And that's where my power will come from.

But I want university anyway. The plan is to get my AA at the junior college I'm at now, work for money at the studio until I have enough saved to go to a university (maybe in New York!), then head off to school while supporting myself. The risk I see in the plan is if I start making enough money to support myself, I'll just stay making money, and not go to college. But I want a degree. Not just to please my parents, not to please my grandparents, because I want one.

Why? Why do I want something that I may or may not even need? Every adult reading this is gonna tell me that I will definitely need it, and that's true, a good 97% of the time. But I might find myself in an actual 3% situation.

Eh, I enjoy school. That's all it is. And since school is expensive, I'd like something to show how much school I've taken, since I enjoy it so much. Ergo, a degree! That's a simple enough explanation. I'll get it because I want it. Not because of the pressure of my family and academic culture telling me life is impossible without it. I can break walls with my head. I'm a Rhoades.

'Til next time!