Posted on 06/13/2007 6:30:17 AM PDT by captjanaway
FSM Contributing Editor W. Thomas Smith, Jr. offers advice to his newly graduated nephew. It’s a letter written for a young man, but all young adults – men and women – would do well to follow its 25 points.
(Excerpt) Read more at familysecuritymatters.org ...
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Is a soft degree the same as C's get degrees?"
My daughter is graduating from college this Saturday, she takes her final,final tomorrow!! Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing. She has worked for free at two jobs, internships, winter term and this spring term, to have the experience and to have it on her resume.
Since she was a little girl she wanted to go to college, do not ask me why neither her father or I are college grads, entrepueners instead. We are so proud of her.
LOL. That's a good one.
At any rate, lifetime income for college grads with a bachelors degree or higher is far and away much higher than that of a HS graduate.
That's fine, and while I certainly agree money is a necessity, one ought to consider at what price. Nevermind that a lot of college grads enter the workforce with college loans stretching into six figures, what about quality of life?
I'm not saying college leads to misery, but I've worked in some high fallutin' places--Wall St., fortune 100 companies--and most of the people there have joyless jobs. They spend a majority of their time slaving away at meaningless tasks, sit in their cars in traffic for hours, to spend a few scant hours in a nice home somewhere. There is definitely more to life than money: there's dignity, joy, satisfaction, meaning.
Anyway, my point wasn't that college leads to drudgery. My point was that skipping college doesn't either. The salary statistics are probably skewed by all the lawyers and doctors on one end, and cashiers and food servers on the other. In the middle are plenty of tradesmen (carpenters, electricians, plumbers, etc) who didn't go to college, have plenty of money, and a lot more self respect than the khaki slacks wearing, fantasy football playing, meeting attenders that populate corporate America. Talk about mediocrity.
In my experience, just the opposite is true. Since everyone goes the same route, getting a mediocre degree from a mediocre college somewhere, they haven't distinguished themselves from anyone. An Ivy league degree holds some distinction (at least Harvard, Yale, and Princeton), but run of the mill colleges are worthless. Once you've seen what passes for a college grad, you cease to give it any weight at all. Far from being distinguishing, it merely makes you one of the vast middle: the mediocre.
If, on the other hand, you've got a kickass life story filled with adventure, self-determination, confidence, flair, creativity, AND you present yourself, through your command of language, as probably at least as intelligent if not more intelligent than the others, well, my friend, NOW you stand out from the pack.
Ultimately, I agree with Oberon. At some point, you go into business for yourself. That's what I ultimately did. Now I write my own ticket. Nothing's better.
Here's an off the beaten path one for ya..."Miller's Crossing." Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, John Turturro. Awesome gangster pic.
And speaking of gangster pics, of course Godfather 1 and 2.
No, I'd consider a "soft" degree to be one in the general liberal arts: any "Language" degree, Film or Theater Studies, Philosophy, Urban Studies, Women's Studies, etc.
At the restaurant where I used to work, the dinner shifts- the waitresses never make less than $100 a night, and more often then not top $250, especially in season. For less-than-eight-hour shifts.
This sounds like a great employee, however without a degree, he's not going to manage other people who HAVE degrees. Consequently, that usually limits their success, despite all those interesting personal characteristics.
"The old man's still an artist with a Thompson."
If he uses his skills and personal traits to build a business of his own, he'll hire and fire degreed people daily, buying the skill sets he needs from the educated serfs.
And before you protest, I likewise am an educated serf.
Sure he is. Often from the get-go. That was my experience.
Patton made it to the top of the list.
Great scene, the way he goes on the attack, totally fearless. Reaches for his stogey as the car goes up in flames. Amazing scene, with Danny Boy playing in the background.
I used to like restaurant work. Good way to meet people and make some money. I’m glad yer happy sitting in an office. I didn’t care for it (except for the excessive time here on FR.) Was as bad as being in school, with the world going on outside the window, me trapped inside like a schmuck.
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