Young people: get an education. Go as far as you can with your schooling while the subsidized loans are available and the family and social support is there. Going back to school has made me realize how important it all is.
I have had a glimpse over the past few years of the alternative to being an educated citizen: long years of repetitive, mindless work stretching on before you, with you having no role in advancing the field. With nothing to look forward to but the end of the shift, the end of the workweek, and the end of one’s working years. A situation where the place where one spends the majority of one’s time is nonetheless the least significant and most banal part of one’s life. Each day wears on you, each day feels like another eight hours that you will never get back. The only imperative in it is to keep the routine going, to go as long as you can before your health fails or you can take early retirement.
On the opposite side of life is school and education, where you make slow but inexorable progress and advancement. Where you make the important connections and can attain mastery with the necessary diligence. It is another world entirely. And once you do attain mastery in your field of study or your degree, you are ready to apply it to your career, where you can be an active participant in the field and a leader in life. You can nourish your child-like thirst for discovery and your inborn adventurousness.
This is not to say that everyone needs a college degree or more. Many people will be fine with a high school diploma and the satisfaction of physical work, the many roles necessary in the service industry, or the joys of a domestic life. A certificate is enough for a satisfying career in HVAC or plumbing or personal care-giving, for instance. And many of these jobs pay well. But I hold that for most people, the more education, the better.
pseudoisaac 