Redheaded Jill

Even though my friend and I have different majors, different interests and different goals we both had professors crush our confidence.

Even though I don’t think about it every day it still negatively impacted my life.

We are sent from a public education system that teaches instant gratification into a place where we have to work hard and we don’t know how. Nobody taught me how to study in school. I was naturally smart enough to pass most of my classes with little to no effort. They didn’t teach me how to improve, they just applauded those of us who were good at things instantly. Later when I had to study to get good grades I had no idea how.

Effort? What is that? I just did things I was decent at. Then I went to college where my best was mediocre at best. It was a confidence killer.

Want to know what I’m good at? What I could make a career doing? Cleaning house. Folding laundry. Organizing closets. Taking care of babies. Cooking dinner from scratch.

Can I make a living doing those things? Actually… kind of. I get to be a nanny, so I get to do these things. But did I go to college to be a good caretaker? No. I went to college to become an attorney. And I didn’t. And now I’m in crippling debt, while the only things I want to be doing aren’t moneymakers outside of being a nanny… or a housekeeper.

The school I went to used to have a degree in home economics. THAT is a degree I’d proudly display on my wall. Unfortunately it was done away with long before my time at the university.

As a millennial I am part of that group who did “the right thing” by going to college, and it turns out it was a big trap. I am happy for the generations that have or will escape this fate. I am also happy for the people who graduated and actually found their degrees useful and capable to helping them make a living wage.

Moral of the story. Don’t go to college if you have to go into debt for it. Don’t turn your nose up at trade or community college. Don’t pay more for a Christian education because debt isn’t a very Biblical thing and that’s what they will require of you to attend.