meh, I am in a similar situation, and have mixed feelings. My parents were for it, but I was against it (because of the values my parents instilled in me... I'm pretty shocked they thought it was acceptable... but I think they were really scared that I was going to be a failure. I mean, I was a failure, at school.)
Anyhow, I'm only the second person in my extended family to not have gone to college. If I performed in school how I perform now (when I am medicated) I would have done very well in high school, I would have gone to college, and I probably would have done pretty okay.
But, then I would have graduated to the work force in 2001-2002 rather than in 1997.
do you see the problem here?
in 1997, I was able to get a programming job, essentially on enthusiasm. In 2001-2002? I would have spent considerable time unemployed, even with a degree.
(of course, that was just pure luck)
But yeah. I'm glad that the crutch is available to me now.
Well by your own admission and logic its essentially a fluke that things worked out for you.
If you were born 2-3 years later you would have been writing a thoroughly different comment.
As a matter of fact, there is very likely someone who made a similar choice like you, only his time line was shifted forward a few years.
His outcomes would be remarkably worse than yours. Not only would he have never gone to college, he would also have an non-competitive start in a tough environment.
>As a matter of fact, there is very likely someone who made a similar choice like you, only his time line was shifted forward a few years.
Oh yeah, that guy worked for me for a short period of time. He got a better job (first at hostgator, then at some fairly well-known generic-sounding consulting house) very shortly afterwards. He mostly just needed /something/ to put on the resume so people didn't give him shit about the empty years.
But yea, random chance is absolutely huge, and I got lucky.
>His outcomes would be remarkably worse than yours. Not only would he have never gone to college, he would also have an non-competitive start in a tough environment.
College isn't one of those 'once in a lifetime' chances; I mean, unless you have parents or something that are willing to pay for it out of high school but not willing to pay for it a few years later, you /can/ go back a few years later. I think it's pretty destructive that the choice is presented to 17 year olds as "go to college now, or suffer forever because you did not!"
Really, if I had to do my life over with what I know now? I would have spent much of the .com crash trying to go to college. I dono if I would have done very well, but I was much better equipped then than I was right out of high school. (well, that, or staying at MAPS. I don't know if I could have handled it, but if I could have, I would have been a thousand times better off than I was hiding out where I did.)
I mean, my main takaway there? even authority figures that genuinely care about and want to do right by you often give bad advice. Your life gets vastly better once you gain self-determinism.
Anyhow, I'm only the second person in my extended family to not have gone to college. If I performed in school how I perform now (when I am medicated) I would have done very well in high school, I would have gone to college, and I probably would have done pretty okay.
But, then I would have graduated to the work force in 2001-2002 rather than in 1997.
do you see the problem here?
in 1997, I was able to get a programming job, essentially on enthusiasm. In 2001-2002? I would have spent considerable time unemployed, even with a degree.
(of course, that was just pure luck)
But yeah. I'm glad that the crutch is available to me now.