Posted on 10/26/2007 6:49:11 PM PDT by VA Voter
I am 24, live with my parents, can’t find work and am floundering in a sea of debt five figures high. I think of myself as ambitious, independent and hardworking. Now I’m dependent, unemployed and sleeping under the same Super Mario ceiling fan that I did when I was 7.
How did this happen? I did what every upstanding citizen is supposed to do. I went to college. I took out loans so I could enroll at Alfred University, a pricey private school. The next year, I transferred to the more finance-friendly University at Buffalo, where I could commute from home and push carts part-time at Home Depot.
I related my forthcoming debt to puberty or a midlife crisis — each an unavoidable nuisance; tickets required upon admission to the next stage of adulthood. But as interest rates climbed and the cost of tuition, books and daily living mounted to galactic proportions,
I realized this was more than some paltry inconvenience.
Upon graduating, I was helplessly launched headfirst into the “real world,” equipped with a degree in history and $32,000 in student loans. Before ricocheting back home, I would learn two important lessons: 1) There are no well-paying — let alone paying — jobs for history majors. 2) The real world is really tough.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, and I had no intention of living in a society that was as unfair as this one. To seek a haven devoid of the ruthless 9-to-5 ebb and flow of contemporary America, I moved to Alaska.
As a liberal arts major, I dreamed of making a profound difference in people’s lives. Instead, for a year, I lived in Coldfoot, a town north of the Arctic Circle that resembles a Soviet Gulag camp. My job as a tour guide for visitors temporarily alleviated my money woes because it provided room and board, but when the season ended and I moved back home, I was again confronted with the grim realities of debt.
Desperate, I browsed through insurance and bank job descriptions. I had hit an all-time low. Could I surrender my soul for health coverage and a steady income? Could I sacrifice my ideals by falling into line?
Suddenly, living at home didn’t seem nearly as degrading as selling out. But sadly, other graduates don’t have any choice but to work for temp agencies and retail stores to eke by.
That’s the tragedy of student debt: it doesn’t just limit what we do, but who we become. Forget volunteering. Forget traveling. Forget trying to improve your country, or yourself. You’ve got bills to pay, young man.
Unfortunately, the recent passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act doesn’t portend that times are a-changin’. The act reduces interest rates on Stafford Loans and increases Pell Grant awards. Whoopty-do.
There’s no question that this is a step forward. But we’re still talking pennies and nickels when we need to completely revolutionize the government’s role in financing post-secondary education.
College is a wonderful experience and something every young citizen should pursue. But without help, a college education is becoming an unaffordable rite of passage and a privilege of the affluent.
My loan payments can’t wait much longer, and soon I must leave home to find work that doesn’t compromise my integrity. Although I sometimes wonder what it would be like if I had declared as an accounting major and got a cushy job punching numbers somewhere, I’ll take my history major, my debt and my mom’s cooking any day of the week.
Ken Ilgunas, who lives in Niagara Falls, fears college is becoming unaffordable for most Americans.
The parents and councilors that fail to inform our youth of the importance of obtaining MARKETABLE SKILLs, ought to pay some penalty.
Especially if staying in upstate New York is in the picture!
Perhaps he should join the Military?
In 4 or 5 years he will have a marketable skill and a new ceiling fan!
I started college majoring in Oceanography. During school I asked about my employment potential in the future as well as earning. I was told that there were no jobs for us and most end up in other fields. I took that advice and launched another career. To bad this little whiny turd didn't look ahead.
The real world is really tough.
Could I sacrifice my ideals by falling into line?
You can give it a shot.
Now don't you be startin' somethin' you don't wanna finish!
This boy needs some serious time in the
Army.
This kid probably wants to get paid to write papers criticizing America just like he did in college. That’s his dream job.
>>As a liberal arts major, I dreamed of making a profound difference in people’s lives. Instead, for a year, I lived in Coldfoot, a town north of the Arctic Circle that resembles a Soviet Gulag camp.<<
I try to be a nice guy. I really do try to see things from other people’s perspectives. And we talk about a lot bad people on Freep but on some level this guy pisses me off more than even they do. Maybe its because I think his attitude actually hurts the country more than a terrorist’s.
I don’t think any of us would mock him if he was actually working and living on his own.
Teaching is a great field. I think if someone wants a history degree, they should also get credentialed to teach.
This young man did not.
He just got a degree without considering what kind of job he was going to do.
If someone wants a job teaching, then they should get that degree.
I said earlier, you find the job you want and then figure out what kind of degree you need to get that job.
He makes some really intelligent points throughout the article about how post-secondary students are borrowing against their future selves, and I'd be surprised if anyone would argue the crippling debt many American students graduate with is a good thing. Here's the story: I live in a van down by Duke University.
I had forgotten all about this post. Interesting follow up. Good for him. Thanks.
He’s bound to have discovered this FreeRepublic link at some point during his travels. As have probably others he’s come in contact with. I wonder what role, if any, it played in shaping who he is becoming?
“, and soon I must leave home to find work that doesn’t compromise my integrity.”
You live at home, NancyPants.
This was originally a 2007 post. For an update see 128.
......a degree in history....
One of my favorite authors is Will Durant who wrote a thin but fantastic book on the lessons of history.
One of the lessons of modern history is “don’t get a degree in history and hope to make a living.”
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