In my younger days when it was just me, no real responsibilites, I worked odd jobs (Security Guard, Chuck E. Cheese) to make ends meet.

In hindsight, I wish I had had the motivation or at least someone like a mentor to push me along at that time, but the fact is, I had no real direction, and no one to say, look do it or you won’t be anything.

Being raised in foster homes and not really having true role models, I still consider myself lucky. I have never been in any trouble with the law or anything like that and surely I’m not blaming anyone for my past troubles, but when your thrown out there to fend for yourself, you do what you have to.

Fast forward 25 years later, I still do not have a degree, but I have been fortunate enough to find well paying jobs in the Library field. I’ve been laid off a couple of times until I finally reached the Federal Government. I’ve been here for 5 years and couting. I really don’t plan to go anywhere else unless forced to, but in the meantime, I will try to get some kind of degree or certificate under my belt just to prove to myself that I can obtain it, and of course utilize it to something that I like doing.

I realize that many of those replying haven’t been to college in a long time, but perhaps before you speak you should return for a while. Colleges these days are nothing more than diploma dispensers. They don’t teach anything more than how to regurgitate “facts” imposed upon us by someone else. They don’t teach students to think freely anymore, or draw their own conclusions. They want you to paraphrase the book and guess correctly on multiple choice questions without taking the time to fully understand any of it. They are a business, and their goal is to make money. I’m 33 and just now going back to finish a degree I started many years ago. I was completely fascinated and saddened by what I encountered. Kids don’t go to college to learn. They go to college to party with friends. They can’t even form sentences when they write or speak, yet they may have a degree before I do, and to society for some reason, that makes them more intelligent than myself.

BTW, my boyfriend is in the IT field and he makes over $60k a year (I guess that isn’t much by some of your standards, but it is a whole lot to us and to our parents who scraped by on much less) and he doesn’t have a degree either.

I guess it all comes down to perspective in life. They don’t teach you that at the university.

If you somehow manage to get in good with a company, you’re a hard worker etc and you stick it out with that same company ( or very similar) till you kick the bucket then you might be ok. How often are you afforded that in today’s economy though? It just all spells out lack of discipline,determination and sometimes lazyness to think that you can get in and stay in for the long haul without it!!