Checking in

[Nev]

<div style='font: ; text-align: left; '>So...I've never really been big on posting details of my life on this board, but for some reason, now I want to.

However, the fact that I'm putting this board down on resumes that I'm sending out makes me feel that certain personal items should be omitted.

For right now, the big kicker is: I didn't finish at Stanford last time I went up there, for a variety of reasons, and now I'm back home without a college degree. Mostly, I was too miserable to go on up there. Now my parents are no longer willing to pay for it if I do decide to go back.

I'm facing the real prospect of living life without a degree now - I KNOW I can't go back before next fall at the earliest. I also missed the UC application deadline, again for a variety of reasons, and I'm facing the very real fact that I may not be able to pay for anything else, which would mean it could be two years before I'm able to go back to school. I'm twenty-four now.

This is not a joke. I have a job now (though I am making thirty-four thousand a year, with medical benefits) filing eight hours a day. I wake up to KNOW I'm going to be filing eight hours a day for the foreseeable future.

I wish I could post the reasons I didn't finish, but they are personal, as I've said before, and in a great number of ways not my fault, though in some ways I must bear responsibility for them.

Now I'm looking at taking classes at night to prepare myself to transfer schools, while working eight hours a day and commuting one and a half.

It's not a joke. But I'm starting to accept it.</div>

[ManaMan]

<div style='font: 12pt Arial; text-align: left; '>Well...</div>

[ManaMan]

<div style='font: 12pt Arial; text-align: left; '>What were you getting your degree in from Stanford? And damn, Standford? That's a great school, isn't it? There's no reason to be down on yourself Mental, you sound pretty well off right now. Although your job might not be the most stimulating, it is pretty decent and if it's stable, I'd just start taking night classes at a local school. It's not Stanford but it is a degree. It sounds like your unhappiness comes from clinging to the idea of finishing college "like everybody else". Almost 70% of people in this country don't even have their college degrees and most of them lead happy lives, probably just as happy as those with degrees. You're allowing this delusion that you're supposed to get a degree (and one from Stanford) make you unhappy. Part of becoming happy is breaking down the delusions that make you unhappy and letting go of all the things you cling to.</div>

[Imakeholesinu]

<div style='font: 10pt Impact; text-align: left; '>...you have a stable job and a means of income. I'm 21 and only a sophmore because I made a mistake and I have very bad ADD. $34,000 plus medical isn't that bad, especially if you have job security, but that is only good for a bachelor who isn't looking to get married or anything at the moment, which I assume you are right now.

After I fucked up my freshman year, I told my parents, and showed them, how much I wanted to stay in school. I worked 50-60 hour weeks over the summer plus a two hour commute to and from one of my jobs. Basically I left the house at 7:45am and didn't get back till 12:00am 4 days out of the week. I know this doesn't sound like I'm making much sense, and I can't even begin to understand your situation, but I would have to say that as long as you have the drive to get a degree, I'd do it. I'm going to be at school for another 3 years, and that's only if I take summer courses as well. I've just been unable to find a job down here because I don't have a car of my own.

I know my degree probably means jack shit (English/Writing) at the moment. I know after college I'll be going to Bartending school or working at the bar I work at now until I get hired by a magazine. I have been considering going to Graduate school, but that is still a ways away. 

My point is, there are a lot of things that can affect your future that you just didn't see coming, and it sounds like that's what happened. I don't think you should blame yourself for things that kept you from going back, just know that the longer you wait the more difficult it will be to go back. If you know you can't go back before next fall at the earliest, then I suggest you plan accordingly to do so.

Again, I don't mean to sound like an ass, but as my female roommates often say "I need to get it together."</div>

[the Gray]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Seriously. I'm you in 2 years. I learned some things in the last few years. Namely, degrees are important, but not the end all of your young life. It's taken me six years to figure out which direction I want to take. So, I'm looking at a further 5 years of school and most likely some debt. But I don't care. I'll finally be on my way to achieving what I want to do with my life.
And there are no safety nets. If I don't go all the way, I'm pretty much screwed.
But I think I'm finally ready for it. So I'm 6 years behind most of my friends, but to many of them are now in areas they do not want to be in.

Anyway, I'm now rambling and it's damn annoying writing long msg's on this thing.
My msg to you, do what you have to do, and don't worry overmuch about tomorrow.

<b>Spoiler Message:<b>
<span style="background: black; color: black;">Seriously. I'm you in 2 years. I learned some things in the last few years. Namely, degrees are important, but not the end all of your young life. It's taken me six years to figure out which direction I want to take. So, I'm looking at a further 5 years of school and most likely some debt. But I don't care. I'll finally be on my way to achieving what I want to do with my life.
And there are no safety nets. If I don't go all the way, I'm pretty much screwed.
But I think I'm finally ready for it. So I'm 6 years behind most of my friends, but to many of them are now in areas they do not want to be in.

Anyway, I'm now rambling and it's damn annoying writing long msg's on this thing.
My msg to you, do what you have to do, and don't worry overmuch about tomorrow.</span></div>

[Oracle]

<div style='font: bold 10pt ; text-align: left; '>Dude, yer font sucks :p</div>

[Ganath]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I, myself, am a (relatively) recent college drop-out. Went to California State University of Chico for a year.

-----------------------------

And that's where my original post started, and soon developed into a longwinded post about the year and one half that has gone by since I graduated from high school. After typing it, I decided it would be more appropriate to rewrite this in a far more abridged format.

So, the story is, in abridged format:

Little over a year ago ------> Entered into CSUC as a freshman

Now -------------------------> Am currently a college drop-out paying for my apartment with a minimum wage part-time job and not regretting it in the least.

Moral -----------------------> A college degree isn't everything. By quitting college I afforded myself an invaluble opportunity to sort out my own head and very calmly (and deliberately) choose or find a course for my life as well as an opportunity to "smell the roses", as the old saying goes. Many people have told me I need to go back to college, and that I shouldn't have quit, but in retrospect it is very easy for me to see that I was going nowhere in college. And while I'm sure your circumstances differ greatly from my own, I am trying to use my own story to illustrate that the "real prospect of life without a degree" is, at most, a mere setback. There are more to things than a college degree and you'd probably do yourself a favor by not stressing out over it, especially at your "advanced" age of 24. So what if you have to wait until you're 26 to go back? Do you plan to die at 30?

And like Grey said, there are definate advantages to not rushing ahead full speed. If I stuck to college, in spite of everything else, I would have ended up some years from now working 8 hours a day five days a week in a field I couldn't give a crap about, and more than likely rather miserable from the fact.</div>