Higher education.

Most of you know my slightly volatile opinion on higher education, but it struck me again yesterday as I made my first payment on the ridiculous amount of student loans I am so privileged to have. I couldn't help but say to myself, what a monumentally huge waste of time and money.

Really it was, I had a pretty bad college experience, I should have known from my first semester, on the first day, in my first class what I was getting myself into. I remember sitting there in my first ever 3D class and listening to my teacher tell someone it was impossible to do this particular thing in the software package we were using. I remember thinking really? That can't be the case. 5 minutes later I was doing it, smiling at my own sheer brilliance. I can't wait to get into a more advanced class then it will get better, I thought. Well it never did. It remained pathetic the whole 4 years, and probably still is today. I had some teachers I liked, and a few select classes where I felt I learned some stuff and gained some valuable experience, but they get lost amid the slimy unfocused mess that was my college eduction. Good thing I realized half way through I was going to have to teach myself this stuff.

If you want to be a doctor, you betcha college is a great idea. It has its place, just not in my life. I wish I had figured this out sooner, like um 5 years ago. I wish I had known before I registered for my first boring pointless general that a college degree would have absolutely no effect on my ability to get a job, nor would it teach me the skills I needed to get a job in my field. People in my field could care less if you've gone to school, in fact it can even work against you.

'You spent the last 4 years in a classroom eh.... well that's great let me see your portfolio. What? You were too busy doing work not related to your field that you didn't have time to build an awesome portfolio? You spent all your money on tuition so you couldn't afford the computer and software you needed to build an awesome portfolio? You spent the last 4 years in a university learning theory from people not working in the field instead of being out in the world learning the latest trends and techniques? Well that's okay, we don't care about your skills we are just happy you have a piece of paper saying you went to school, I am sure it taught you valuable work ethic and made you a better more rounded person. So we will hire you anyway. NOT!!!'

Ashley insists that I mellow my opinion when we have children. Perhaps something in my life will change my stubborn opinion before then but I doubt it, I really don't see myself telling my children they have to go to college. I will however drill into their small impressionable minds that it is oh so important to gain a skill, a talent, a vision for what they want their life to be. If that means buying them a table saw and letting them become the best miniature doll house cabinet maker the world has ever seen, or having them go to a trade school to become an amazing (and honest) car mechanic, or going to college to become a doctor, whatever it is I will encourage them to have a vision and to work their butts off to be the best at whatever it is they decide to do. College or not.

But to my credit I graduated, I finished, I suffered through despite the constant rumblings in my mind telling me it was a complete waste of time and money, but I did it. I finished. I think it was a combination of not wanting to disappoint my parents, and the fact that I had already wasted three years of my life in pursuit of a piece of paper and frankly it would be dumb to not finish. If I were to start over I wouldn't do it. No college for me. But for now I am stuck making payments on my 11,000 in student loans. Yuck.