I realize it has been quite some time since I updated this
blog and, for that, I apologize. But, I couldn’t remain silent upon reading an
article I found on Pinterest written by a blogger that I followed for quite
some time. It was all about why the author has decided to no longer attend
“university.” It is my understanding that “university” in the UK is quite a bit
different than it is here in the States and I don’t entirely think this person
is wrong for their choice. HOWEVER, yes it needs all caps, I think it is so
important to impart some wisdom to those who are currently in high school and
attempting to choose a college, nontraditional students-like myself-who are
trying to make it through college, or anyone else who might be on the fence
about whether or not college is “worth it.” **Please read my disclaimer at the
bottom.**
In the article, the author
mentions several points, one of which being that a degree isn’t necessary for a
lot of jobs. I’m not going to say that they are wrong, but I want to offer some
perspective. Now, keep in mind that I am from a small town (less than 17,000
people) in the Midwest. What kind of jobs are available in my town without a
degree? Well, there’s factory work, retail, fast food or other food service, a
few highly sought after and difficult to obtain administrative positions, and
that’s about all. Please don’t misunderstand me here. There is absolutely
nothing wrong with any of those jobs. But, around here, base pay is either
minimum wage or roughly $10/hour. Although, when doing factory work, someone
might get lucky and start out at $12-$14/hour. There is a large steel plant
here and workers there can bring home anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000+
annually. Sounds good, right? I will tell you from personal experience that
those jobs are not easy, fun jobs. The people working there, outside of
administration, are working in all types of weather conditions, often 12+ hours
a day (after all, overtime is where the money’s at), and it’s a very dirty,
dangerous place to work. People die there. I can’t say that there’s been a
death every year for sure, but in the last 5 years there have been at least 2.
One man, who survived, suffered third-degree burns after being accidently
exposed to steam, another broke his neck falling from a high platform. Not to
mention all of the chemicals and just literal dirt each person is inhaling
while on the job. Those jobs are extremely physically demanding and workers in
their 40’s are suffering from health problems previously not had until a person’s
60’s. They offer health insurance at roughly $100/week per insured person and
they might offer a 401K option or other type of retirement compensation. So the
money might be good, but at what cost?
Then, there’s the food service jobs. Anyone feel like standing over a
fryer all day or waiting tables until their feet are so sore they can’t stand?
I understand that is not always the case with either job, but the fact remains
that those are not glamorous jobs, either. And, how much do those jobs earn? Minimum
wage plus tips? $10-12/hour? They also take a toll on a person’s body and
emotional well-being. Are there benefits there? Perhaps, with large chains or
franchises.
What about the retail jobs? Well, there’s plenty to go around because of
the high turn-over rate. People are working for large corporations or little
mom-and-pop shops and are at the whim of their employers (in this state, at
least). They might make minimum wage or maybe a little bit higher, especially
if they can work their way up into management for the large chain stores. If
someone is working for the smaller, locally-owned businesses, what happens when
the owner dies or chooses to retire? And most of those places don’t or can’t
offer insurance so the employees are paying for it out-of-pocket through a
third party. What about a retirement package or 401K? Not in a mom-and-pop
shop.
Lastly, there’s the administrative jobs at the court house or a doctor’s
office or at one of the schools. The problem there is that once these positions
are filled, they rarely become available again for many, many years. People
working at the court house in the various offices are government employees so
they make a decent wage and have benefits. The doctor’s offices often offer
some type of health plans, too. But finding those jobs is like finding a needle
in a haystack. The number of people who apply is often overwhelming to the
people doing the hiring and many qualified people go unnoticed.
Another issue brought up in the article was the possibility of not
finding a job despite having a degree. I can say with certainty that I know
people who have degrees, some of them have several degrees, that are working
for the nation’s largest retailer stocking shelves or, maybe, working in middle
management. So, this argument isn’t invalid by any stretch. But, the problem I
see is that the degrees these people hold are somewhat obscure, especially for
our area. I know a guy who has a degree in Spanish, art history, and something
else. Okay, what is one supposed to do with either of those in this town?
Unless he’s planning to be hired at the local college as a professor of either
of those subjects, or maybe one of the area high schools, his degrees are
useless. In this case, his years of hard work and thousands of dollars were
completely wasted. And I think I know why/how this happened. There is a
generation of parents slightly older than myself, but younger than my parents,
who all pushed college on their kids. But rather than encouraging them to find
something that would actually benefit them, they told their kids to do whatever
they wanted, that college was about having fun and “discovering yourself”
instead of learning real skills to earn a degree that makes money. My
stepdaughter and I recently had this conversation when she was deciding whether
or not to pursue higher education. She said, “I thought college was supposed to
be about doing stuff you want to do.” I told her that she wasn’t wrong and she
should find something that was interesting to her, BUT she needed to walk a
fine line between a major that sounded like fun and one that would also pay the
bills. I said to her, “Let’s pretend that you want a degree in art history. Do
you plan to still live in this town? If so, what the heck are you going to do
with that degree here?” I think that hit home for her. She couldn’t come up
with an answer. So, I said, “I’ll tell you what you’ll do with it; you’ll hang
it up on your wall and bring it up at parties but you’ll be working in a
factory or in retail.” Okay, so let me interject here and say this: I don’t
think that particular degree is useless. It is only useless if the person
getting that degree doesn’t live in or plan to move to an area where they could
get a job using that degree. The degree could be in something like criminal
justice. Seems like everywhere could use that, right? What about a town with
less than 5,000 people and a full police force and crime rate that might as
well be in the negative numbers? I’m just picking on art history, for which I
apologize. But I also told her this, “If you’re passionate about art history
and you really want to build a career on that, then you need to be prepared to
relocate to a place where that degree makes sense and people who have that
degree are sought after.” Make sense? Parents have got to start telling
children the truth about college! These kids need to know that real life is so
much different from what they think in their heads. It’s easy for someone who
has never worked a full-time job and paid real bills to say that they can find
a job that doesn’t require a degree. They’re right, but what kind of job will
they get? There are so many more factors that need to go in to making the
decision to go to college that parents just aren’t telling their children and
it’s a disservice to them.
Okay, so these were only a couple of issues brought up by the article’s
author. All of that being said, I do know several small business owners that do
not have college degrees and they are very successful in our area. And that’s
great and wonderful and I wish them all the best. But that is not the norm for
around here. I know countless numbers of people who are working in various
factories around town, a couple even have degrees so they’re in a higher pay
scale, that are completely happy with their job and that is great. Obviously,
we need people to work in factories, haul freight, cook food, et cetera and, as
previously stated, I am not trying to minimize the hard work that those folks
do at all. But, for me-personally-that is not enough.
I don’t want to simply “get by” and be content with only having enough
income to pay the mortgage and buy groceries. I want more out of life than the
bare minimum. Coming from an impoverished community and a family that lived at
the poverty line for my childhood, I can tell all of my readers that I
understand that money can’t buy everything but I have larger goals. I want to
be able to take my family on a nice vacation whenever I see fit or buy my son
those brand new shoes he’s been watching for a while that I can’t currently
afford, even if they’re on sale. I want to be able to buy a new car, if I so
choose. I want a bigger house and new furniture that isn’t all hand-me-downs
and yard sale finds. I want to buy new clothes for myself that don’t come from
a second-hand store, EBay, or the clearance wracks of my favorite stores. But,
beyond all of that, I want to impact the life of another person. It’s no secret
that I’m a pharmacy student and I plan to be a clinical pharmacist, working in
geriatrics in palliative care, specializing in end-of-life. I want to be
someone that has a positive impact on each of my patients. I want to be someone
that others can rely on in tough times. And to do all of that, I need a degree.
I know an awful lot about what’s it like to work in retail for a small business
and feel trapped and desperate. I know what it’s like to not know where my next
meal is coming from or how I’m going to buy my kid’s school books. And those
are only a few of the reasons why my family and I have decided that I’m going
to back to school to pursue my doctorate. I’m going to change our lives for the
better and I hope that I can help others to do the same.
**As stated, I do not feel that any degree is worthless and I only chose
one to “pick on” one that made sense to get my point across. Any figures I
stated are based off of my personal knowledge of what different places around
my town actually pay. I know those figures will be different in other areas.
Most importantly I want to state that I do not look down on or minimize those
jobs that don’t require a degree. It is my personal opinion that anyone working
deserves respect and a livable wage regardless of what job they actually
perform. In other words, I don’t care if someone scrubs toilets or serves as a
CEO, they each deserve the same respect for their work and the right to be able
to provide for themselves and/or their family. It should go without saying that
this all my personal opinion and I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. I’m
not trying to force my opinions on anyone. I only want to help others see that
there are other perspectives.
