This one is a comment I left for one of David's blog posts.
This almost made me want to cry… I was honking and actually following for a while someone on the road because they NEVER used their turn signal and it pissed me off monumentally. Turned out to be a couple of big dudes who looked like they could lift motorcycles, but what if there had been little kids in that car? Would they have noticed? What if it had scared them a lot?
I felt really bad and it didn’t help that my younger sister was in the car, watching all of this. Watching me take pleasure in harassing strangers in one of the most cowardly ways possible.
This is something that was on some help post. Turns out I misunderstood the girl mostly but I sure got my feelings across! lolz.
Poster: I could go into a trade right now if I wanted too. But unfortunatley, I do not have the thick skin that a trade requires. I have been working blue collar for awhile and I honestly can’t handle it. It not only destroys my body, but my mental health. The stress is so overwhelming, and the sense of failure I feel doing it. The sense of “I’m smarter than this”. . .
I don’t know what to do. I feel like I have to choose between being miserable and in pain for the rest of my life, or being thousands and thousands of dollars in debt, and almost being in my late 30’s by the time I can actually stop loosing my mind.[/quote]
Now hold on I almost take offense to that… Thick skin that a trade requires? Maybe the blue caller stuff is hard, but I’m going into Cisco Networking. My daddy did the same thing (only he learned it in the military) and now he makes over 81 grand a year. He never went to college. Does he sound like a failure to you? Besides, who the hell ever said you have to go to college to be happy? Where is it written? Actually, some studies show college kids are more miserable than those who didn’t go. A lot of people don’t pay off their college debt until they’re 30, so by trying to avoid debt you may actually be charging right into it. Does going to college even guarantee you’ll get a high paying job? Absolutely not. Several of my coworkers at Wal-mart make just as much as a teenager who never even went to high school went to college.
You think bringing a pay check to a large, luxurious home will make you happy? Did you know that in Haiti, the poor earth quake stricken country’s suicide rate is approximately 0%? And here we are in places like America offing ourselves one by one. What does that tell you? Another thing… Nigeria came out as one of the top countries for over all happiness while America sports 16th…
Here’s one more fun fact: The idea that happiness is something you can pursue and obtain is extremely new. In ancient Greece, they thought happiness was something you had when the gods were kind enough to give it to you. They never even thought it was something they could do for themselves. OK, here’s a ton more fun facts: Some languages don’t even have a word for ‘happiness’.
“Happiness” is not something you can ‘obtain’ or ‘pursue’. Especially by going to college or living up to the typical American standard. I could live in a big mansion or a little cottage my amount of good days and bad days will not change. I could bring home 5 million dollars or %500 and my amount of good and bad days will not change and neither will anyone else’s.
Something else good to know: If you think about it, it becomes clear that if America became emotionally healthy and didn’t feel like they needed to race around like rats and buy buy buy, big houses and cars and expensive educations the economy would collapse and NEVER recover. This need has been put into us by companies so you will buy their stuff, and they can then have money to buy the stuff they’ve been brainwashed into thinking they need. It’s a vicious cycle.
So go ahead, climb the cooperate latter and become like the rest of the greedy miserable rats. I’m going to live my pathetic simple life as a poor soul who could only manage to learn a trade! I’ll be so sad with my smaller pay check… looking up at the light of “happiness” shining from you and wishing I would have only sacrificed my health, time spent with important people, and life entirely on the never ending chase for mone- I mean, “Happiness”!!
So… if “happiness” is not something you can really pursue and obtain… then.. what is it..?
It’s attitude.
Put two people in the exact situation. Exactly pay check and life quality, weather that’s a mansion life style or a little apartment type deal. Give one a good attitude, and one a bad. Those with the good attitude will be very happy, no matter which general life you give them. The ones with the bad attitude however… will not.
Weather you graduated from Harvard or Job Corps is irrelevant.
Weather you make a million dollars a year or minimum wage is irrelevant (though if you have a family you may need more than minimum to eat, that is something you want to be able to spend money on, but that is beside the point)
Weather you live in a standard home or an apartment is irrelevant.
All of that means absolutely nothing. No matter where you are in life, the quality of it will depend %100 on attitude.
If there is something you love doing that college can help you achieve, go for it. Otherwise, if it’s all about money, you’ll just make yourself miserable. Going through all of that stress and debt… when you could have made good money with free education with Job Corps (people who graduate from there make good size pay checks, honestly). So here’s one of the most important pieces of advice I have ever gotten:
Don’t go to college for money, go for love.
College doesn’t guarantee you anything, so why go through the trouble unless it’s for something you really care about? (Which should not be money).
Sorry for going off on a rant, but the [quote]the sense of failure I feel doing it. The sense of “I’m smarter than this”. . .[/quote]
ting kind of set me off. Also, there is A LOT more than just blue caller junk in the trades. I certainly couldn’t do any of that either!
Also, here’s where the attitude thing comes in again.
You were treated differently? so was I. I never went to school, at all, not even once. I was behind in everything especially social skills. It doesn’t help that I have a baby face… they treated me like I was some little girl who wanted to hang out with the “big kids”. Do you know how self esteem destroying that is? Especially being OLDER than most of them? Of course I don’t understand your latest.. phrase or craze I don’t go to public school it doesn’t mean you have to treat me like a 10 year old!
It bothered me for years. I did everything to prove myself and boy gally I did. They’ve not afraid to share dirty jokes with me anymore! I’m no longer the ‘cute little one’ they felt protective of.
You and I are not that different… we were treated different and that made us determined to prove ourselves to those who did this to us. Well, I’ve been there, and where am I now? Wishing I hadn’t bothered. I put myself through a lot of stress and misery all so I could say “I told you so”. It really isn’t worth it, I wish I had had a better attitude about the whole thing. Because honestly who the hell cares what they think?
You don’t have ANYTHING to prove to ANYBODY. They can go f*** themselves, you just do what you want. What do you want from life? Do you want to be a doctor? Go for college! Do you want to be a simple house wife and raise a family? Go for a nice cushy trade you can stop and go at anytime! Why should you spend all of your valuable time as a young person stressing out and paying off thousands of college dollars just to say “I told you so” to a bunch of people? Even if it’s your own mother.
I will not waste my time trying to make everyone around me happy or even trying to prove anything to anybody. This is the good kind of selfishness, baby.
I’m 19, everyone around me even my little brother has gone off the college. I know for a fact that when they talk about me, they say similar things people have probably said to you. But mostly that I’m lazy, unmotivated, trying to find the easy way out. They can all sit on an icepick, I don’t care I don’t I don’t caaaaaare ba dum ba dum!
