I have a degree.
But I don’t feel that it’s even worth the paper that it’s printed on.
It’s an art degree. Ironic when you think about it.
A much younger me thought getting an art degree was what he wanted and thus, he went and earned an art degree from a college that’s smaller than most big city high schools.
This degree took me four years. I was lucky enough to find a university that “froze” tuition payments, this meant that the enrollment fees I paid my freshman year were the same as what I paid my senior year. This came out to roughly $16,000 per year.
Throw in a scholarship and some Pell grants, and that number came down to about $13,500. That’s a ballpark figure as this writer doesn’t want to actually go and look, so we’ll stick with generalities.
$13,500 x four years=$54,000.
$54,000 that needed to be financed somehow.
Well, Fannie Mae was nice enough to give me money because my parents are not wealthy. Not to mention what little extra money they had they already used to help my sister pay for her schooling, so there was none for me and my brother.
Oh well, such is life.
I had $54,000 in loans at varying interest rates that would not require payments until six months after I graduated from college. During those six months, as the logic was at the time, I would have plenty of time to find that plumb job that would reward me monthly. My degree would help with this.
During those six months, however, those loans were accruing interest. I didn’t have to pay, but they were going to be tacking onto it anyway. That was logic that I didn’t follow…I still don’t.
With the degree proudly displayed on my resume, I attacked the job market… only to find that minimum wage retails jobs were the only ones willing to hire me. The rest seemed to think that a simple degree wasn’t enough, I needed experience.
Hmm…
It took me a year of slogging through retail, applying to jobs and hearing not a peep back from HR departments, and getting those lovely letters that say “payment due” before I took a long and hard look at my college years.
What did I really earn?
On day one of my freshman year, a very shy and introverted young man entered a dorm room. After some awkward conversation with my roommate, who I’d finally met that day, I unpacked and settled in. I knew no one else there, and more importantly, no one knew me.
Fast forward through four years and the young man crossing the stage is engaged to a brilliant woman, still introverted but caring less what people think of him, and feeling secure in himself for the first time in his life. He’s also found a community to be part of. Not the alumni community, but a group of friends he’ll remain close to for years to come.
These are the things that I’ve truly earned through college. But I can’t say that on a resume.
I did, however, have to pay off the student debt.
That brilliant woman that I married? She helped me pay them off. We were very aggressive in this, focusing on the lower interest loans first before we moved on to the bigger ones. As the principle amount got smaller the monthly payments got smaller as well. This didn’t slow us down, it only encouraged us. The payments may have been smaller, but it still meant I’d be paying them off for a long time. When we were able to get the amount down to around $300, I simply made one last payment for the entire amount.
I’m now student-debt free.
Again, I can’t put this on a resume.
Something else came out of that long and hard look at my college years—I love to tell stories.
While at first I wanted to become an animator or a director of animated films, like Brad Byrd, my inability to find gainful employment to pay for those endeavors pushed me to dig deeper into that desire. Ultimately, underneath it all, I enjoyed hearing and telling stories.
It also helped that my wife encouraged me to pursue this.
Now I’m a certified ghostwriter and I’m helping amazing people tell their stories.
It wasn’t easy to get here as I had to take a certification course in ghostwriting and then grind it out until I could find clients—but it was worth it.
College, after all, was worth it too. I would not be the person that I am today if it were not for taking the chance of going to college and putting forth my best effort. I also met my wife whom I’m happily married to, with one child already and, as of this writing, another one on the way. I still see my college friends on a regular basis, or about as regular as I can given I have a daughter to raise. It’s not easy, and college didn’t make it easier. But college did teach me a lot of things about myself that I wouldn’t have learned had I decided not to attend.
All of those lessons, however, occurred outside of the classroom.
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