Thread: My Future
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Old April 17th, 2005, 06:28 PM     #7 (permalink)
Knothead
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Long Beach, CA
Posts: 3,187
Hi, Jim, here's some thoughts from the perspective of a guy with 51 "annual rings"...

You say you're a Junior in high school? Well, okay, I might suggest you ask around the school yard...ask your peers "Hey, do you know exactly what you want to do with your life?"

You may find that few guys your age really KNOW! So much for angst.

Can't say much about your parents; they care, of course, but...you need to get some dialog in with them about how they're making you feel with all the pressure. It's not the way they should be handling this with you, IMO.

With that said, I would yet tend to take their side about the College issue, and here's why:

A College grad has many more OPTIONS in life. Read it again, buddy!

Owing to a king-size dysfunctional family situation, I was on my own at 17. I didn't go to college (plus, I figured I was too smart for all that... )

I basically trained myself in the field of commercial art, and after a LOT longer than it woulda taken a normal College grad, I eventually prospered.

Unfortunately, in the early '90's, programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, and others became wildly popular, and suddenly anyone who could learn them was calling themselves an Illustrator/Designer. What I did became just about worthless, as there was just WAY too much cheap competition.

So there I was, age 40, a one-trick pony and no more circus! And with only a high-school education, I had very little to recommend me to a prospective employer.

It is a fact that College doesn't necessarily make you SMARTER; but lemme tell ya, that degree is like a secret password when you need another door!

I wound up figuring another angle, but I'll tell you, it would have been a LOT easier and faster had I that MBA degree to re-build around/add to!

Bisides, in that four years, you'll have plenty of time to figure your angles, meet people, and like that. All in all, a good thing!

Then, if ya wanna bugger off and collect seashells, you'll still have those options down the road, if an attack of rampant capitalistic fever gets you!
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