Just graduated ( High School) now what?

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by JesseMckee, Aug 28, 2006.

  1. JesseMckee Registered Member

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    Hello everyone I'm just looking for some advice on what I should do now that I'm in the "Real World." I'm thinking of college but I really don't know what I'm interested in but I know I can do anything if I put my mind to it. Perhaps someone could give me some input and even describe to me what you do for a living. Basically I just don't know where to go right now and I'm just browsing different options and I could just really use some advice/opinions right now. Sorry if I'm not making sense right now I'm very tired. Thanks.
     
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  3. Athelwulf Rest in peace Kurt... Registered Senior Member

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    If you don't know what you want to learn in college, one option that merits consideration is to hold off college for a bit, and get a job to eventually earn enough money to travel a bit. If you can get out of your own country, or even off your own continent, that would do you good. The idea is to escape your world for a bit and experience another, which may greatly broaden your perspective and help you discover what you want to do with your life.

    The catch is that a lot of people who hold off college end up not going at all. Decide if you have enough motivation right now to continue your education, and if you will still have enough motivation when your time is up.

    I hope this idea is a good starting point. I'm at the same point in life as you are, and this is the idea I've decided to use for myself.
     
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  5. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    You can take courses in your first year of college that are credited to a number of majors. At least, while you're there, you'll have an opportunity to talk to others who have already chosen majors, and the instructors to see if anything tickles your fancy.

    Getting a job will only reinforce the idea that you don't want to flip burgers and probably won't help with your decision.

    As well, going to college might even help you decide that college isn't for you, perhaps a trade, instead.
     
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  7. The Devil Inside Banned Banned

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  8. spuriousmonkey Banned Banned

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    Do Europe.
     
  9. original sine Registered Senior Member

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    Go to a community college for a semester and take classes that interest you. You might get an idea of what lies ahead in your educational career. If you don't like it, you can always drop the courses or stop attending when the semester ends. If a degree didn't guarantee higher wages, I would probably attend classes one semester a year just to continue learning.
     
  10. RubiksMaster Real eyes realize real lies Registered Senior Member

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    I would suggest going to a community college and getting your general education requirements out of the way. This should take one or two semesters. No matter what you major in, there will be certain classes that you'll have to take anyway. And if you have interests, take some classes in that field. For example, if you like computers, you could take a few comptuer classes to get a better picture of what your interests actually are. Also, get a job, and work as many hours as you can (while still taking a few classes). This is important.

    That way, you'll have a while longer to decide what you want to do. You'll have money to live on. If you decide you want to go back to school and pick an area of study, then you will have a few credits to go on, and you won't be all that far behind. And if you decide not to go back to school, you will at least have some work experience.
     
  11. Blackrain Registered Senior Member

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    Go to school now, if not you'll regret it later. College grads are paid 40% higher then non College grads. Plus, Girls outnumber the Guys in College. It's 1000 times easier to lay a SUPER HOT chic in College then it is in Highschool. It's a win win situation. Don't derpive yourself of the best expericen you're ever going to have.
     
  12. RubiksMaster Real eyes realize real lies Registered Senior Member

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    Ha!! Not at my school. Damn engineering school...

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    True, true. And besides, I've never heard anyone say "Damn, I really wish I hadn't gone to college!" But I have heard people wish they had gone in the first place.
     
  13. Kat9Lives Registered Senior Member

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    I went straight into University without really knowing what i wanted to do and deferred 6 months later and went off to travel the world. I don't believe you should jump into Uni. unless your certain of what you want to study and become..
     
  14. sderenzi Banned Banned

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    I don't really see how you can travel the world without a college degree. How can someone that works regular jobs ever get enough saved to go live in another country, it's somewhat illogical. Even if you could fly there what about a place to live?!
     
  15. Kat9Lives Registered Senior Member

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    394
    I guess I am living proof then. I managed to travel extensively, held good jobs and lived comfortably. I speak several languages, am opportunistic and confident which helped with getting a good job.
     
  16. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    I would normally go with the people who say "travel." I waited until I was 30 and it just wasn't the same, although it was still a hoot.

    One thing you have to do is decide whether you're right for college. But you seem to be saying you are, that you're a good student. Still the question remains as to whether you're motivated. There are an awful lot of distractions during the college years, most of which are found right on campus. The aforementioned girls, for instance. Even math majors who spent the last six years playing videogames get dates in college. If you don't feel a passion for what you're studying it's easy to slack off. Even for a good student the work is very hard--the sheer volume if not the level of difficulty. You have to want to do it or the combination of sweat and distractions will get the better of you.

    This would be a very good time to do some visualization, meditation, talking things over with a wise adult, something like that. You're somewhere between 16 and 18 years old, I guess, and you still don't have a vision of what you want to be when you grow up? Wasn't there ever a time when you said, "When I grow up I want to be a...," or "...I want to be like..." ? For many years my idol was Walt Disney and I'm still sorry I didn't scream and pout to make my parents give me art lessons.

    If there were no rules, no constraints, nobody to tell you you're being silly, no bills to pay... what would make a happy, fulfilling life for you in a perfect universe? Perhaps you've been suppressing a desire to be an artist of some sort. Or a cowboy, a fireman, a forest ranger, a tour guide, a chef, a TV weatherman. All of those are real jobs and somebody gets to have them.

    Maybe you'd like to be a scientist (or anything) but your performance in your high school science (or whatever) classes has not inspired you to believe that you have what it takes. Well let me tell you I was the other way around, I had the aptitude but not the interest, and wasted a few years trying to become a scientist that I didn't want to be, and that sure didn't work. You're more likely to succeed at something if you have the desire but not the strength, than vice versa. Even if you don't you'll still have a helluva good time trying and you'll make some memories you will treasure forever.

    Maybe you do want to be some sort of artist (every time I say that I want to follow it with "Captain" because that's the way everybody talked on Star Trek TNG): a musician, photographer, painter, writer... and you don't believe you can make a living at it. That's quite a problem to face but you should face it honestly. Get some appraisals of your talent and ambition from people in the field. Some of them will tell you how poor they are and perhaps their wives support the family, but you'll also get a chance to see whether they're happy with their lives. Women really love it when their husbands are happy. And some of those women are determined to become doctors and lawyers who won't need much help paying the bills.

    If this isn't helping, if nothing comes strongly into your mind... well then you're not in very good touch with yourself. That can be a killer. You have to know yourself before you can help yourself figure out what to do with yourself's life. Take up meditation, or the Emotional Freedom Technique (google that or I can give you a good website), or have this conversation with some caring adult in person, with greater bandwidth than we can achieve here.

    Now to play devil's advocate. And this is serious, I tell it to every kid your age who has a reasonable amount of ambition but isn't exactly college material. I know that does not describe you but listen anyway, it will give you some perspective on your alternatives.

    Spend your college money on travel. You will come back much more mature than you are now, and you'll have a much better idea of where you want your life to go. If you discover that you were wrong and you really do want to go to college, don't sweat it. You'll find a way. America wants its kids to go to college and somehow you will go. If not, then go out and apprentice yourself to a plumber. It's dirty work but it's honest work, and you'll have the joy of making a lot of people very happy. It's even kind of interesting. And it's cathartic, working with your hands, becoming a member of one of civilization's oldest engineering professions. You'll become heir to the legacy of the guys who built the Roman aqueducts, arguably the human race's longest-lasting constructions that are still in use, and that is some pretty proud company to be in. Depending on how quickly you learn, within maybe ten years (probably not much longer than you'd spend getting a PhD and earning even less money than a plumber's apprentice) you'll be able to start your own business, hire your own apprentices, and spend the rest of your working life doing easy office stuff or going out on the big jobs to supervise and schmooze with the homeowners.

    And you know what? Go into any modest-sized town that isn't full of corporate headquarters, and you'll find that the most successful, most prosperous men (and a few women nowadays)--who did not inherit their wealth--are the plumbers.

    And you know what else? These days it seems that practically every job in America is in danger of either being automated, or being done offshore manually by Malaysians and Brazilians or virtually by Indians and Estonians. What is one of the few jobs that has to be done hands-on? Plumbing. Until someone actually invents a "transporter," we will always be pumping water and waste through pipes and they will have to be installed and repaired by human hands. Maybe someone will invent a robot that can do that before they invent a transporter, but it's not going to be in your lifetime.

    Maybe you just can't see yourself as a plumber. But I bet the idea never occurred to you to even think about, and I bet you didn't know what a sweet life it could be. What other great ideas have you missed?

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    Good luck. Keep this thread going.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2006
  17. FallingSkyward How much is there to know? Registered Senior Member

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    Hey, an interesting spot you're in! I decided, midway through my senior year when I was filling out various college applications, that I just wanted to break free. To "get off the conveyor belt," so to speak. I was stressed out, burnt out and sick of classroom learning. After 12 years in the educational system, I just couldn't jump into the next 4-8 years of my life without experiencing something completely different.

    So I tossed aside my applications, had a long talk with my parents, and begain a search for place to take my "gap year." (It's not so much talked about in America, but it's pretty common in the UK. I have a British acquaintance who opened me up to the idea). And now i'm all set up to leave for Ghana early January. I'll be teaching English for 4 months to children grades KG-6th in the highlands. That is already going to be such an insane change for me, but there is the added quirk that the man who runs the place is an Indian Monk. He's a vegatarian, meditates and teaches yoga - all three of which I'll be practicing while there.

    Until then I'm working as a CNA(certified nursing assistant), a fairly random choice but it's good money for this age and again, a new experience. And that's what I'm living for.

    I really have little idea of what to expect or how I'm going to be changed by this year, except that it will be positive. I can't imagine getting away from the gross excesses of the USA and experiencing a completely different way of life being anything BUT good for me. It's not going to be easy, but I'm sick of easy. Living here is easy. I want challenging; I want different.

    What do you want to do with your time? That's really something you have to feel. Maybe you could narrow down a few adjectives and branch off from there. =)
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2006
  18. sderenzi Banned Banned

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    I would try engaging in more then 1 sexual act in the coming months. It is very important that you get the sperm out of your system. It's important to realize your manliness an to conquer many woman before you are finally bogged down at a job.
     
  19. vslayer Registered Senior Member

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    spend a few months in an easily transferrable hands-on job like carpentry, engineering or farming, then you are set. there are plenty of people who need a replacement worker for a few weeks, who are quite happy to pay you under the table if you dont have citizenship.
     
  20. The Devil Inside Banned Banned

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    i did it.
     
  21. Crunchy Cat F-in' *meow* baby!!! Valued Senior Member

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    If you want satisfaction choose a subject that have already shown talent in as well as desire. If you want freedom then choose a subject that pays a buttload. If you want both then you have an assload of work ahead of ya

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  22. TruthSeeker Fancy Virtual Reality Monkey Valued Senior Member

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    What is your purpose in life?

    If you cannot answer that question, you are most likely not read for post-secondary education...
     
  23. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    Purpose has nothing to do with it. If his purpose was to make money, then he can achieve that without a post-secondary education.

    Your purpose, for example, is to be a parasite of others fortunes and achievements, all the while whining about failing at your own short-comings.

    How will an education facilitate your purpose?
     

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