What did you do with your questionable degree?

[justsomeguy]

i have a BA in philosophy and art, and a BFA in drawing & painting.

i'm back for a masters in fine arts in drawing this fall. i hope one day i my drawings will be enough to pay rent / groceries / bills , etc. for the next 3 years the us govt is subsidizing me at like 4.3 % interest.

 

[poopie]

i worked on a BA in philosphy for several years- i was about a year away from graduation. i lost interest, left school, and continued with my job of slinging drinks.

back in school at a community college, also earning my RN.

very happy about the turn of events. to me, i was terrified to have this "generalized" degree and not be trained for something specific. i was terrified to graduate before. now, i have been "training" for my license for almost two years and i cannot wiat until graduation!!

even better would be finishing that BA in philosophy and getting on a hospital's ethics board once i'm too old to work on the floor as a nurse. =)

 

[TurkishPepper]

nobody ever said it would be easy, I guess.

19 days till graduation and I am more lost and more confused today than I was at any point in the last 4 years.

It's so hard when you have no direction. If I had only set a goal way back when, I could be achieving my dreams right now.

But that's a little thing called living in the past that we're just not allowed to do. I'm trying to get over it, but if I told you that I didn't spend sleepless nights out on the street smoking and pacing I would be lying to you. The fact of the matter is that I really feel like I'll never be what I want to be simply because I don't know what I want to be.

So here's the cold hard truth that is slowly becoming a warming comfort:

If you are like me, don't know what the fuck you are doing out there in college or in life, and you endlessly search for direction to no avail, maybe you should stop and consider the fact that maybe you, like me, are simply incapable of pegging yourself as any one thing. Maybe you never will have a career. Maybe you will go from thing to thing and though the concept of permanence and security is desirable to you, when you get down to it, you just aren't that type of person.

That's what I've realized. But at least it's something. So now, like always, I am living my life planning 6 months in the future AT MAX. Planning for years out was always totally unrealistic for me, much less 10 years into adulthood.

And as for my degree... It's perfect for me: general, unassuming, simultaneously purposeless and full of potential.

I relate to this completely. I find myself hugely interested in everything, almost like a child in a sweet shop, with opportunity everywhere and richness calling out from all corners of life. But I find it impossible to choose just one thing and stick to it. I desperately wish that I could have that singleminded drive that some individuals possess, as I would love to accomplish something with my life. My background means that I feel a great need to validate my worth, which for me is inexorably tied up with academic achievement. It doesn't help that most of my peers are high-achieving and very capable people.

I would just say, you can at least be proud of yourself for sticking at it long enough to graduate. I am 33. I was 'educated' (if you can call it that) at home for religious reasons and had no school leaving qualifications. I have tried university twice. The first time, a few years ago, coincided with the aftermath of a separation and learning to run a household on my own and be a single parent. I ended up hugely stressed, developed depression and finally felt I had to quit in order to keep my sanity. Tried again part time recently but found it difficult. It's hard for me to focus at the best of times and coupled with my crippling self-doubt I found he academic process very painful. Unfortunately I am a perfectionist who doesn't possess the ability to achieve to the degree that is necessary, so having my work constantly evaluated and found wanting was too much for my ego. So now I am stuck with what to do. I think I will have to admit to myself that I am not suited to academia, and I will have to find some oher path to challenge and accomplishment.

Anyway, all that to say, congratulations, you should be proud of yourself.

 

[rangrz]

become an officer in the armed forces, backstab until your a colonel or above. then make up orders and regulations to make the grunts doing the nasty side of it lives as hard and short as possible, while using the supply airlift plane to go to a "meeting" thus leaving us with no supplies.

its awesome, you get a fancy uniform and get to fuck people over all day!