Jump to content

Life Decisions.


Recommended Posts

It is really weird how when you are growing up you think something is so important and you will do anything to get it...and then one day you wake up and it just doesn't make sense anymore...

I could not agree with you more. It seems like when I was in my band every minute was spent on trying to play shows, practicing, and booking shows. Then I quit the band and I was lost for a little bit. Definitely glad I was in the band though. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I could not agree with you more. It seems like when I was in my band every minute was spent on trying to play shows, practicing, and booking shows. Then I quit the band and I was lost for a little bit. Definitely glad I was in the band though. 

 

Same here man, I don't regret a second of it and I feel like it taught me so much about life and friendship. I was lost too after I quit because I spent six years hanging out with the same dudes at least four times a week and talking to them every day, and then after I quit they didn't talk to me anymore. It kind of bums me out the way shit ended but honestly I think I'm better off. As much as I loved those guys at the time they had no ambition or drive to do anything. After I left they named the band "Without Kneel" because my name is Neal and I guess they were trying to be funny...but personally i think its hilarious because without even thinking about it they pointed out that I was the driving force in the band, and they played one show without me and broke up completely a few weeks...I guess that shows what kind of friends they actually were...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK so I am about to get my Phd in Industrial Engineering so if you think I'm biased, fine.

 

when are you expecting to finish?  I'm defending for my biostatistics phd in june or july.  hooray for phds!

 

as for the general discussion, I'd just say to thoroughly research things as much as possible.  if you're thinking about going to a "lesser" school (less prestigious, less money, etc.), you should probably call up some of the places where you'd want to work and find out if going to that "lesser" place is going to hurt your chances of getting a job.  I went to a state college for undergrad and had trouble getting into grad programs out of state (despite having a ~3.9 gpa and acing 2-3 times as many stat classes as most of the other applicants took).  fortunately, the U of M has a great biostat program, so things couldn't really be better, but still.  oh, and this also hits close to home because my sister keeps talking about taking online classes and I can't help but think that:

 

person + "online degree" = person + "no degree" + epsilon - (lots of money), as epsilon -> 0

 

as for the whole "student loan" thing, I was told not to go to grad school unless someone else is paying for it, though I'm not sure if that's because [a] if you were "good enough", someone else would pay for it or if it were worth it, someone else would pay for it.  and if you're good enough and it's worth it, say you want to do a phd and you'll be better off.  oftentimes you can back out and just get the masters, but at least you can get funding for a year or two (while earning the scorn of your department).

 

and in terms of the women/babies/family discussion, that seems like something to "plan" ahead of time (note: I like having "plans").  at the very least (in my opinion), the plan should be "no makin' babies until someone's makin' money".  and ideally (again, in my opinion) both parents would work and have similar incomes.  I have no idea how the breadwinner/stay-at-home-parent dynamic works, unless of course there's a lot of money involved and the breadwinner (read: husband, for the sake of the following stereotypical comment) has no real interest in parenting.  to me, the breadwinner/stay-at-home-parent thing just creates an uneven balance of power/stress, both in terms of finances and parenting.  that being said, none of my friends are in such a relationship, so it just seems foreign/archaic to me

Link to comment
Share on other sites

April 5th predefense. April 25th defense. I'm distributing my dissertation to my committee tonight. I'm right at them very end.

I knew the whole home maker point was not on solid ground and I debated saying it. The people who would fall into that category would probably have other character traits that would equally make them suspect material for college (little career ambition, more concerned with partying, only care if they pass/fail).

Anyone who wants a career and a family can and should do it.

I still stand by my point, though, that the whole higher level education system could be run more efficiently if resources where not being spent on people who really only go to college because in today's age, that's what you are supposed to do. It wasn't always like that in our country. I would be interested to see numbers on how many people today actually use their degree vs. how many did from 1950 - 1980 or so, when the old middle class jobs started leaving our country for 3rd world countries.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

So I'm bumping this thread because another company has decided to close their doors and I'll be on unemployment in a matter of two months( I worked at Border's until they closed). Which I'm actually looking forward to. I start graduate school for School Counseling next month and I took the plunge with the student loans. I'm looking forward to finishing production on my film next month and then riding out the last few weeks at work til I start getting that unemployment check. I'll take the good with the bad and I'm just happy to be managing my time well enough to get all this stuff handled. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

bumping this thread because everything is coming up Millhouse. I accepted my admission into the MEd program at Loyola for school counseling. My film is 3 days away from being done with production, and I do not have a job to prevent me from doing academic research while I am in the graduate program. I'm kind of stoked on life right now. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

everything is also seeming to come up millhouse!

 

you all probably remember my incident a couple months ago- the one where i basically hit rock bottom.

since then i've decided that teaching is, in fact, what i want to do with my life.

i also started drawing again, as anyone in the wrestling thread or on instagram has seen. it's by far the best body of work i've ever done, and a local shop has agreed to host my stuff in december. aside from highschool art shows, my work has never been on display, and now i'm going to get a full opening. super exciting.

it's also looking very likely that i'm going to get promoted to management in the near future. in which case, i'll finally be making comfortable money again. and if that does work out, there's a house that would be perfect for my friend and i to move into.

and i keep winning things. first was abovetheearth's insanely generous giveaway during the holidays. then secularhaze drew my name. shortly after, i won one of the vinyl world's contests. and yesterday, i won a contest at work for a free pair of jeans.

kind of bums me out that i was denied buying scratch tickets the other day because i didn't have cash. at first i accepted that they were all losers and that i was saving $6. but now i'm worried that there was a couple grand in there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

update:

i got the promotion today!

going to check out that house with my friend this week.

and now that i'll be making more than minimum wage again, i can look into the state's required tests for education.

 

but really. it wasn't even two months ago that i was knocked on my ass, and feeling completely terrified that i didn't have a shot at getting back on my feet. no drake quotes. just a lot of pride right now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×

AdBlock Detected

spacer.png

We noticed that you're using an adBlocker

Yes, I'll whitelist