Education: Then and Now

Yes I have a degree, a relatively new Associate degree in a relatively hot field. And yet the week before my check comes, we are literally pinching pennies. I wonder if staying blue collar wouldn't have been better? Yes we were still pinching pennies, and we were still requiring help from time to time, but nothing has changed from a financial perspective. What a fool I've been.

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed going back to school, it gave me a sense of purpose and I loved learning what I learned. However, I learned it so I could make money. Yes it was interesting, but I took up that subjected for the income potential. So now, while I struggle to make the ends meet, which they usually don't, I wonder if I should have just followed my own path and let it lead me where it may.

I'm not advocating a reckless, thoughtless path. In fact, I am suggesting a profound and profane amount of introspection to find out what really makes a person's heart sing. I may sound a bit crazy, but I believe that if you do find out what it is that truly makes your heart sing, then that is what you are meant to do with your life.

You need to have faith in yourself and your own gifts. You have the ability to do so many great things. You have the intelligence to learn anything if presented to you in the right way. I am always going to advocate for school first, for almost everyone. But there are some for whom school (University) is just not the proper path. Let these people follow their own path. Help them as you would college students. They will make up the foundation of our society and a good portion of our elite.

The problem is, how many young people get to this stage? No as many as you might think. Too many students drop out of high school because they can't read or do math. Others drop out so they can work, or to take care of their families. The problem really is that too many children are being left behind by the "No Child left Behind" program. And don't get me started on the little children.

For me there is no excuse. I was raised in an era when schools taught students and we learned. We didn't all learn everything, but most learned most everything that was taught. And they had discipline. It all seemed to work, the only problem with it was we might have learned too much. Finding something to settle on has been difficult.