10-17-2023, 12:14 PM
(10-17-2023, 12:04 PM)Awful Llama Wrote: I too went to a community college and received an Associate degree when I was 21. At my first FT office job I was making slightly more than those without any schooling, but it was no path to prosperity. So, eventually, it dawned on me that I had to drag my happy but back to school and get the Bachelor degree or I'd never make any money.
I wish I had went away to school when I was 18 just for the whole experience. But education wasn't something my parents ever worried much about even for themselves, so that wasn't something that was stressed in our home or anything that I ever strived for. It took some years of real world experience before I realized I needed to get more education.
Pretty similar story to mine. No one in my family had ever gone to college before me, so it just wasn't a thing that my parents thought of much. I only did it because it was just "the thing to do". I wasn't the greatest student in high school. I was a class clown, hated keeping up with my homework and made OK grades. Nothing special. Nothing for a scholarship, surely. So, I went to a community college and actually started enjoying school. I found I liked math quite a bit, statistics even more. I went to the satellite campus and graduated without issue to go into the "real" world as I saw it. I had been working full-time throughout most of this, but it still felt like I was a kid goofing off.
I too sometimes wish I had actually gotten the college experience, but I think it was for the best that I didn't. I wasn't much of a partier but I think introducing all of those distractions would have made it more difficult for me to come out as well as I did. I would've chased girls, undoubtedly. Instead, I graduated with no debt and an immediate job. I'm happy it worked the way it did.
