I hate to be the one to have to tell you this, but not all U students will be leaving here with a degree.
Maybe they will flunk out, drop out, get married or have a kid. Maybe they won’t be able to pay for tuition, will have an illness in the family or will just want to get started with their “life.”
But hopefully they won’t get their degree because their daddy owns a dealership and they can mooch the rest of their lives.
For me personally, I have considered calling it quits because I am sick of homework, waking up before noon and paying for an education I’m still not putting to good use. We all need to reassess from time to time why we are making the sacrifices we are to be in college, and my time is now.
The promise of a high-paying job and a pool is enough to get most students here. Some come because they want to make a difference in the world, others because their dream job requires it.
Whatever the reason, it was good enough to get us here, so we might as well let it keep us here.
When the homework has piled up and you are working overtime at a job you hate, the last thing you want to do is wake up and make it to that 7:30 a.m. class. You just want a little me time. When all you have had to eat for the past month is Pop-Tarts and you are averaging five hours of sleep per night, school is the last thing you want to think about.
So you don’t, and before you know it, you are the manager at that job you hated for 40 hours a week-with a second kid on the way. It is at this point you would give anything just to go back and finish up that bachelor’s degree so you could get that job you had always dreamed of and the kidney bean-shaped pool that came with it.
Getting a college education is a lot like getting into heaven: You have to give up all the pleasures of life in the hopes of a better one. Only, unlike heaven, there are statistics and facts to back up the education theory.
According to a study issued in 2002 by the United States Census Bureau on earnings by education level, high school graduates working full time can expect a yearly income of $30,400 versus a college graduate working full time who can expect $52,000 a year. That is the difference between living comfortably and just living.
Individuals with only some college can only expect $6,000 more per year than someone with only a high school diploma; I paid nearly that much in my first year at the U.
All those late-night cramming sessions and early morning classes will be worth it in the long run. There will always be time to sleep when you graduate, and you can at least survive on Pop-Tarts.
College graduates can be proud to attend their high school reunions because they have a college degree hanging in their den and a job they don’t dread returning to the moment they leave.
Most of us will be sacrificing five years of our life’s prime and thousands upon thousands of dollars to make those golden years shine all the brighter. I have never been a businessman, but that seems like a fair enough trade when you think of the difference an education will make in the end.
I mean, you could have a kidney bean-shaped pool if you really wanted it; and who knows, maybe you might find your life a little more fulfilling, too.