We’re all struggling to find our way. In a world where possibilities are endless but everything comes at a cost what do you do? How do you attempt to live your dream? A decade ago college degrees used to mean success in some way. You were compensated more for what you earned. You were thought to be highly educated and had some type of distinguished appeal in terms of your field of study. Degrees are now a dime a dozen and the cost is astronomical. For what payoff? All you get now is a chance at any success with any job in any field because they don’t care that you have a History degree or a Biology degree. They just want you to have any degree. You study for four years trying to get a well rounded education because somewhere along they way you’re told that you have to. You take a chance for a risk that will leave you with a mortgage and no house and a pay off that may take up to ten years to be returned. They say that by the time you’re 30 you’ll eventually have enough experience and working knowledge to come close to making what you deserve and maybe be doing what you thought you wanted to do. Um – stop… that’s insane. I get it childhood and high school no longer teach you what they once did. Parents don’t let kids fail anymore. You don’t get to be the losing team, everyone gets a trophy for playing. Debt is inevitable but student loans are more defeating than anything else.
We live in a backwards world. Kids don’t know how to fail, they can’t lose and know the meaning of it. Working hard doesn’t always pay off. Proving you’re the best at what your job only gets you stuck there. School does not prepare you for anything. Skills are not learned while at school. Taxes, the actual value of voting, finances, independence, taking care of yourself, major life skills that you need to learn to be on your own are not skills anyone seems to value. Then society turns on our generation saying we’re lazy and entitled. They hold any mistake we make against us. Yet they still do not teach us. We do not truly know what failing is. And by the time we’re even given the chance to fail we already have $50,000 or more in student loan payments and can’t afford to fail.
It’s a crazy fucked up world out there. I love my parents but they don’t get it. I have so much respect and love for my close friends but even some of them do not understand what the calculated value of a degree is in return for your life.
I had an argument with a friend the other day about college. We’re about a year apart in age, we’ve known each other for over a decade but I’m not married and they don’t have any degrees. They made their decisions. They’re working part time for more money than they’ve ever seen but what they’re doing is nothing I’ve ever wanted to do or make happen for myself. It’s not hard labour and it isn’t desk work either. I don’t bash their chosen job but that’s what it is – a job. A for now this will do job.
I get having a job and working for a living. But I don’t get living for your job. I might want a career but I don’t even know what that means anymore. What’s the difference between a job and a career? Do you have to be a doctor or a lawyer to have a career? Do you have to work 80 hours a week and devote your life to working to have a career? Will someone please throw me a bone and tell me what the hell it means because I don’t know.
My dad says all the time, oh your friend is doing xyz… when are they gonna get a real job? I get it there’s a difference between working in retail or fast food and sitting at a desk all day but hell, if that’s what they want and are content with that, then who the hell are you to tell them otherwise? My dad and I disagree quite a bit in terms of the world today. He can’t see my perspective and he doesn’t want to. My mom is the same way but we don’t generally talk about it. I’ve been angry about some things that are going on in my life lately and I think this country is ass backwards. I don’t bash the quality of life because it is not bad in the slightest. But saying we’re fucked up is an understatement. He insists that half the countries I’ve been in I’d be arrested for even speaking my mind. To which I have to point out to him that he’s never even been out of this country before other than Canada and the media/news only tells you what they want you to know. I get trying to watch the news and educate yourself but you can’t believe everything people tell you about other countries. Yes some things are true and some places are dangerous. It happens. That can be said about anywhere. But when you can’t even provide for yourself in a country that is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave what do you have? There is no American Dream. I’m slightly ashamed of what this country has become.
I like to be knowledgeable and educated on things in the world but I like to learn by doing and through experience. There are so many things that this country does get right I will give us that. But there are so many things that are expected from the youth of this country that have never been taught to us. I like to believe that you can learn something from everyone in terms of life and what not, but that does not make everyone a teacher. Not everyone can teach and college and graduate school and the education system today is not teaching. Common core and teaching to pass state tests and not having high expectations because of an area’s reputation is ridiculous. Not everyone is given the same chance and that’s obvious. But why would you throw the future of this country away with ridiculous unevenness when it doesn’t have to be that way?
I’ve been reading around and it says that by the time you’re in your 30s or around 30 you can hope to be semi successful. If your job/career doesn’t take off until you’re 30 then from the age of 22 when most graduate from college until 30 what do you do? That’s 8 years of a whole lot of craziness. If we drink or experiment, then we’re addicts. If we party, we’re hot messes. If we stay in and do nothing we’re responsible. If we have a real job then we’re doing okay. But the last time I checked – living in your parents house going to a job you hate everyday isn’t acceptable, yet we’re not really given a choice. If you go to college you take a chance. If you go to graduate school you take a chance. None of those chances ever guarantee a payoff. Nothing in life is certain except death. You have loans to pay yet you’re not guaranteed a job. You have a life to live yet you’re not guaranteed a chance or success. And if you ask any adult, that’s just life.
Going to a job you hate everyday, having debts, owing people money because that’s how the world works, trying to find passion or make it in a world of your choice is silly – get a real job. Trying to be thankful for what you have is hard. Everyone in society from kid to adult is ungrateful. We’re not taught how to be thankful for what we have because even our parents want more and they wanted it yesterday. Life is hard. Love is hard. Friendship is hard. Risks are worth taking but they never pay off. Chances are everywhere but to take one there’s risk is involved. So what do you do? Do you sit around and do what you’re told because it’s the easy way? Do you try to break the mold because of your own dissatisfaction with yourself or the life you’re leading?
How do you dream when you can’t afford to pay for food today without the help of your parents? How do you have goals when the odds of ever achieving them are slim to none? You have every chance in the world to be whoever you want but so does everyone else. The world is a lot smaller of a place, we no longer compete with those in the cities and states around us. We’re competing with the world. How do you find contentment and satisfaction when you’ve never been taught how to experience or deal with those things? I want to love and be loved. I want to be happy. I want a job I enjoy at least slightly. I want to pay for my loans and not have that burden hanging over my head. I want to have my own house or apartment but I’m nowhere near achieving any of those things. I’m sick of complaining and I’m sick of people telling me that having debt you can’t control and working a job that makes you miserable is just life. I refuse to be an adult that can be beaten into submission in such a way that I find that acceptable. I’m sick of the world telling me that regardless I do and how much I try that I’m not good enough. I will not give up and I will not be beaten into submission. I’m sick of adults that have little to no ambition ruining it for us dreamers that want more for this world.
When do you stop believing in the myths of fairies and happy endings? I don’t mean that literally but honestly. Why give into the monotony and unhappiness of a job that gives you nothing but headaches or annoyance? Why give into debt and owing everyone for anything you ever do? Why pay for every single chance you take because you need to learn from experience? Why not help someone along the way and learn for yourself and from them? Why complain if you won’t educate yourself on anything or everything? “We are the music makers. We are the dreamers of dreams.” We have the potential to write the next epic adventure. To live it. To be the next great anything. We have the most access to the best of the best throughout history yet we don’t have the capabilities to learn all that we can from it and each other. “If this is to be our end then I will have them make such an end, as to be worth of remembrance.”
Talking Over the World (formerly Diary of a Tactical Maverick) 