I'm done with school.
"Oh Ian so you have a degree?"
No I'm just done with school.
I do have a Computer Information Systems diploma (two year program). While in school I got my current job as a programmer. Since I was working I went to school part time so my two year program took three years. After I graduated I initially decided to try for my degree but was feeling burnt out from juggling work and school at the same time and after completing the semester I was on I decided to "take a break" from school for a bit to concentrate on my job which I was now working at full time. That break has become permanent. I now have a career in the very field I was going to school for and that was the whole point. I also now have enough relevant work experience that if I ever switched jobs my 8 years of work in the software industry would get me the job, not my education. So I have no regrets about effectively dropping out of college. Hell my original plan was to only get the two year diploma and only pressure from my parents made me consider going for a degree. In retrospect "taking a break" was just an excuse to keep my parents from getting pissed off. I honestly had no interest in going back.
I just hate school. I hate classes, I hate homework, I hate tests. I've always done well at school because I know the formula. I know how to work the system to get good grades. Studying and taking tests is a skill. In class participation is all about acting. Assignments and homework are all about bullsh!tting and knowing what the instructor wants to hear. But I find the whole thing excrutiatingly boring and most of what you "learn" is useless bullsh!t anyway which you immediately discover the second you're thrown into the real world. I did like college initially because of the atmosphere. I liked hanging out with my friends and such. But at that point I was just going to school. Once I had to juggle a career AND school it just ate up all my free time and my life was just stress and deadlines. It sucked.
I've always however seen school as merely a tool to get a career going. I never had any romanticized ideal of post-secondary education being anything but a business. They get your money, you get a line on your resume that helps you get a job. I've done that. I don't need to do that again. The most important things I've ever learned are from life experiences anyway.
I've grown uninterested in my current career but like where I work enough that if need be I can live with it until retirement. What I really want to do is make movies for a living or make music. Both are dream jobs that I'm making a serious effort for but will still require a fair amount of good luck to achieve. Neither career really would benefit from going back to school for.
Topic: School (Read 7548 times)
