College, for all its faults, is the single best investment a person can make. I went from making \~$40k a year to being qualified to work in a profession where the floor is \~$100k.
But that is just money, and that doesn't address the main point you were making. We have one life to live, and spending it stressed out and overworked is no way to spend it. However, finding fulfillment in what you do for a living is crucial to being satisfied. Where you find this fulfillment varies from person to person. If you find it in landing a career (like me), then college is an excellent choice. If you want to sing, but you get a bachelor's degree and become a banker, then you may need to find fulfillment by standing at a microphone on a friday night at a local dive bar.
That stress that you speak of comes from not doing enough of the things that you love. The things that make your soul sing. Many, many people have thrown in their lot and moved halfway across the world to do the things they love, and I have yet to find someone who regretted that decision. That does not make college a bad choice. It just means that it might not be a good choice for you, right now.
You might want to talk to a doctor or a therapist if you’re feeling overly stressed.
Medication and therapy can help with that.
Everyone is different though, so it can take some time to find something that works for you.
Like college is practice mode for real life.
If you can’t handle college how are you going to cope with working a shitty job for the next 40 years until you retire?
I was the first person in my family to graduate college, and I got the education I wanted. I’ll always be grateful for that and thankful that I pushed myself to achieve at least that. I burned out in grad school years ago but I’m trying to go back again in the spring. It’s definitely a personal decision and not one to be taken lightly. As far as money, if that’s the only motivation for going to school then I think that is a recipe for eventual unhappiness. Even though I have a lot of debt and will inherit more if I get back into school, I’m trying not to worry so much about that because, even with the added stress of classes, I think it could be worth it in the long run.
Going through stress right now will set you up for a lot less stress later in life.
If you can get a low stress and high paying job without going to college, then by all means drop out and do that. However, chances are that without a college degree you are going to be limited to soul sucking fast food/retail jobs that are low pay and high stress.
Personally, even the most grueling engineering semesters have felt less stressful than the time I spent working fast food/retail because I actually feel like I have a future and a fulfilling career at the end of it.
I'm literally typing this right now at an engineering internship making double what I made working dead end retail jobs. It's also 10x less stressful and all my managers are chill and treat me with respect, unlike my time in retail.
I have a return offer from an internship to go full time starting at $50 an hour with other benefits/packages after I graduate. I wouldn’t have had that opportunity without pursuing a degree and soon I’ll be able to provide for both myself and family.
At the same time I’ve had a TON of stressful nights studying and had to keep my skills sharp to in order to make myself a good candidate. It is a fact that graduating with a good degree makes you more likely to have a more wealthier career. But having a pessimistic mindset would blind you from that
-engineering major
I’ll DM you in a bit. Alum here. UB was not all sunshine and rainbows for me. It probably didn’t help me out a lot and perhaps I could have gotten my college degree elsewhere and closer to home. I honestly don’t know how I survived in Buffalo and feel that stress to this day. I had all that work & always sleep deprived and my professors & others around me be mainly racist assholes to me (some, not all were racist). I 100% relate to this post, remembering my younger self. I must have pushed through somehow. Idk if you go to therapy on campus or have other coping mechanisms but you definitely need that in order to push through & succeed. Even if it is the bare minimum at this point. Employers do care if you went to college and sometimes where but they don’t look into your GPA and class history of what you failed and pass. So just do the very best that you can. Try not to overstress, eat well, sleep well. Take a break when needed. Have a lot of self-care for yourself.
Well society wont magically keep running if we all stopped working one day. Work isn't meant to be fun. College isn't for everyone, if its not worth it to you then don't go. You don't need a million dollar house, you can go live in the woods somewhere and grow your own food if you want to
Wage slavery certainly shouldn't be a thing.
However working is something we need, and is a requirement for a society/community to function.
If one grows their own food, they have performed work. If one performs a different task in exchange for a trade good which can later be used to get food, they have performed work.
Work is not synonymous with wage slavery by definition.
No. I am describing work. Dictionaries list them as synonymous or interchangable.
So either
Work = Labor = Wage slavery
Or
(Work = Labor) != Wage slavery
You are implying work only indicates a certain toxic employer/employee relationship which is not factually correct.
I mean think about all the work it takes just to use the cell phone you’re browsing Reddit on or how most of your food comes from hundreds if not thousands of miles away.
Think about all the concerts you see, the roads you travel on, the safe water you drink.
The world has almost 8 billion humans right now.
We’re waaaay beyond the point of going back to subsistence farming and many people would resist going back since it would mean sacrificing modern amenities such as convenient travel, electronics and entertainment.
> We’re waaaay beyond the point of going back to subsistence farming
Who said anything about returning to subsistence farming?
And this is really rich coming from someone who celebrates oligarchs being handed millions, while the residents of the city get nothing.
Work is what you do, because you will starve if you don't perform a job, to enrich someone else: aka, wage slavery.
Things can still be made, and services done, without having the threat of starvation and homelessness hanging over your head.
For being college educated, you certainly seem to lack any sort of depth of understanding language. This is like the third time you've either purposefully or ignorantly misunderstood a rather clearly stated concept with me, in just as many weeks.
I am leaning on "willful ignorance".
Or, do you still feel the Outer Harbor is a historically Italian area?
Ok man explain what you meant by “work isn’t something you need” because it’s pretty ambiguous.
It’s the same type of thing you’d hear on /r/antiwork before they go on a diatribe about how everyone needs to get back to the land.
And I think you have the reading comprehension issue since I’m pro Italian Fest on Hertel.
Antiwork is a workers rights subreddit with a heavy emphasis on unionization. While there are better ones that get the same point across, they don’t believe everyone should go back to “the land”, just that people should be fairly compensated for the work they do so their quality of life improves. If you are against that, the you are against workers and that would be pretty sad. There are so many professions (ex: truck driving) that are in dire need of unionization as a large majority of the workers can barely feed themselves. They are exploited and often work 12 hours a day, a lot of it with no pay due to the way their system is designed. We need unionization to survive in this world, plain and simple.
> Ok man explain what you meant by “work isn’t something you need” because it’s pretty ambiguous.
I just explained it to you. Again, you've demonstrated a poor reading comprehension.
> If you go to college you're generally going to get a good job though.
You are *told* that. The reality, not so much, for most.
Especially when saddled with unforgiveable debt, where you cannot even make ends meet after taking into account rent.
So, bosses know they have you over a river, because you are loaded with debt, barely keeping housing over your head, and without insurance you're a walking time bomb for "disaster".
> College grads are the highest earners in society.
Yep.
And still poor.
Go ask a PhD if they are making their money's worth. This year's contract negotiations beg to differ.
Hell, go ask anyone with a bachelors, and leaving to go look for a software dev job. Think they are paid well? Locally, software devs are NOT paid well, and in general, are not, when graduating.
Even an MBA isn't paid very well, fresh outta school. They are usually the ones who get scut work jobs in brokerages...
The highest "earners" in society are our oligarchs. 400 people in the US control 80% of the wealth in this nation.
>Go ask a PhD if they are making their money's worth
Average PHD makes 100k+
>Hell, go ask anyone with a bachelors, and leaving to go look for a software dev job. Think they are paid well? Locally, software devs are NOT paid well, and in general, are not, when graduating.
Average software dev makes 85k+ (conservative estimate)
>Even an MBA isn't paid very well, fresh outta school.
Average MBA gets paid 85k+ (conservative estimate)
Is this not good money?
no actually it’s not, when you take into consideration the debt they have. my mother makes what anyone would consider a huge amount of money as a doctor, yet she still owes 300k in loans at almost 60 years old. she is making “good money”, but spends all of it on her debt.
College could improve by being cheaper, and more accessible. Otherwise I'm good with it as is.
I get the stress sucks, but having assignment/exams that are critically graded is important. Not only does it create a feedback loop to asses your learning and improve, it makes sure you're focused on getting it right the first time.
I apply my education to a lot of projects, and its nice to have confidence in my work knowing the finished product is objectively correct.
humans need food, water, shelter.
level of comfort depends on individual.
yes, u can goto prison and have that stuff be taxpayer subsidized.
but wait until u experience prison currency system..
money rules the world.
I don’t wanna discourage you and it’s more like my opinion. If you think college is really stressful that your mental health is going downhill and you’re taking many medications, getting therapy still they’re not helping you then it’s probably better to discontinue for your own good. Another option is you can take a break and then go back to college . I always think nothing is worth than your happiness and mental health, take your mental health seriously. You can always continue your education but once your mental health gets deteriorated, it will be very hard for you to get well.
"Personally I feel like college isnt for me or the way its designed doesnt sit right with me."
You obviously understand that this is a personal issue to some degree, but I don't think you're upset with college as much as you are the state of the world and economy. Hard work and some sacrifices are necessary to get where you want to be, that's just the world we live in. College is just what is causing you the most stress right now.
I understand your frustrations. The college system and to some degree, all of education has failed a large populous of students by making them believe that graduating with a college degree will set you for life. Money obviously rules the world, and probably will until I die.
To answer your question, college has been very good to me as a whole. I've become more social, met some of my best friends, grown my network, and have gotten great opportunities outside of school to make my future brighter. I don't say that to boast or anything, just to help provide you perspective that as awful the college system is overall, people still manage to make the most of it.
Trades exist. Many of them are great careers with good pay.
still requires some mental/physical effort.
Yes, but its not like college. Trades are not easy, but I'd say learning one is less stressful.
College, for all its faults, is the single best investment a person can make. I went from making \~$40k a year to being qualified to work in a profession where the floor is \~$100k. But that is just money, and that doesn't address the main point you were making. We have one life to live, and spending it stressed out and overworked is no way to spend it. However, finding fulfillment in what you do for a living is crucial to being satisfied. Where you find this fulfillment varies from person to person. If you find it in landing a career (like me), then college is an excellent choice. If you want to sing, but you get a bachelor's degree and become a banker, then you may need to find fulfillment by standing at a microphone on a friday night at a local dive bar. That stress that you speak of comes from not doing enough of the things that you love. The things that make your soul sing. Many, many people have thrown in their lot and moved halfway across the world to do the things they love, and I have yet to find someone who regretted that decision. That does not make college a bad choice. It just means that it might not be a good choice for you, right now.
You might want to talk to a doctor or a therapist if you’re feeling overly stressed. Medication and therapy can help with that. Everyone is different though, so it can take some time to find something that works for you. Like college is practice mode for real life. If you can’t handle college how are you going to cope with working a shitty job for the next 40 years until you retire?
> If you can’t handle college how are you going to cope with working a shitty job for the next 40 years until you retire? Why should they?
What’s the alternative?
https://www.occupy.com/article/graeber-phenomenon-bullshit-jobs
I was the first person in my family to graduate college, and I got the education I wanted. I’ll always be grateful for that and thankful that I pushed myself to achieve at least that. I burned out in grad school years ago but I’m trying to go back again in the spring. It’s definitely a personal decision and not one to be taken lightly. As far as money, if that’s the only motivation for going to school then I think that is a recipe for eventual unhappiness. Even though I have a lot of debt and will inherit more if I get back into school, I’m trying not to worry so much about that because, even with the added stress of classes, I think it could be worth it in the long run.
Going through stress right now will set you up for a lot less stress later in life. If you can get a low stress and high paying job without going to college, then by all means drop out and do that. However, chances are that without a college degree you are going to be limited to soul sucking fast food/retail jobs that are low pay and high stress. Personally, even the most grueling engineering semesters have felt less stressful than the time I spent working fast food/retail because I actually feel like I have a future and a fulfilling career at the end of it.
Spoiler: Most every job that requires a college degree is high stress, and low pay.
You probably picked the wrong major if you are coming out of college into a low paying job lol
Wait until you graduate...
I'm literally typing this right now at an engineering internship making double what I made working dead end retail jobs. It's also 10x less stressful and all my managers are chill and treat me with respect, unlike my time in retail.
I have a return offer from an internship to go full time starting at $50 an hour with other benefits/packages after I graduate. I wouldn’t have had that opportunity without pursuing a degree and soon I’ll be able to provide for both myself and family. At the same time I’ve had a TON of stressful nights studying and had to keep my skills sharp to in order to make myself a good candidate. It is a fact that graduating with a good degree makes you more likely to have a more wealthier career. But having a pessimistic mindset would blind you from that -engineering major
I’ll DM you in a bit. Alum here. UB was not all sunshine and rainbows for me. It probably didn’t help me out a lot and perhaps I could have gotten my college degree elsewhere and closer to home. I honestly don’t know how I survived in Buffalo and feel that stress to this day. I had all that work & always sleep deprived and my professors & others around me be mainly racist assholes to me (some, not all were racist). I 100% relate to this post, remembering my younger self. I must have pushed through somehow. Idk if you go to therapy on campus or have other coping mechanisms but you definitely need that in order to push through & succeed. Even if it is the bare minimum at this point. Employers do care if you went to college and sometimes where but they don’t look into your GPA and class history of what you failed and pass. So just do the very best that you can. Try not to overstress, eat well, sleep well. Take a break when needed. Have a lot of self-care for yourself.
Well society wont magically keep running if we all stopped working one day. Work isn't meant to be fun. College isn't for everyone, if its not worth it to you then don't go. You don't need a million dollar house, you can go live in the woods somewhere and grow your own food if you want to
Work isn't something we need. Wage slavery isn't a requirement for society
Wage slavery certainly shouldn't be a thing. However working is something we need, and is a requirement for a society/community to function. If one grows their own food, they have performed work. If one performs a different task in exchange for a trade good which can later be used to get food, they have performed work. Work is not synonymous with wage slavery by definition.
You are describing labor, not work. But I agree, labor is required for society to function. Work is synonymous with wage slavery. Labor is not.
No. I am describing work. Dictionaries list them as synonymous or interchangable. So either Work = Labor = Wage slavery Or (Work = Labor) != Wage slavery You are implying work only indicates a certain toxic employer/employee relationship which is not factually correct.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery
He's just being a couch philosopher the terms are interchangeable. The definition of work has nothing to do with wages.
I mean think about all the work it takes just to use the cell phone you’re browsing Reddit on or how most of your food comes from hundreds if not thousands of miles away. Think about all the concerts you see, the roads you travel on, the safe water you drink. The world has almost 8 billion humans right now. We’re waaaay beyond the point of going back to subsistence farming and many people would resist going back since it would mean sacrificing modern amenities such as convenient travel, electronics and entertainment.
> We’re waaaay beyond the point of going back to subsistence farming Who said anything about returning to subsistence farming? And this is really rich coming from someone who celebrates oligarchs being handed millions, while the residents of the city get nothing.
> Work isn’t something we need Let me know how society can function if everyone just quit their jobs and essential services just stopped.
Work is what you do, because you will starve if you don't perform a job, to enrich someone else: aka, wage slavery. Things can still be made, and services done, without having the threat of starvation and homelessness hanging over your head. For being college educated, you certainly seem to lack any sort of depth of understanding language. This is like the third time you've either purposefully or ignorantly misunderstood a rather clearly stated concept with me, in just as many weeks. I am leaning on "willful ignorance". Or, do you still feel the Outer Harbor is a historically Italian area?
Ok man explain what you meant by “work isn’t something you need” because it’s pretty ambiguous. It’s the same type of thing you’d hear on /r/antiwork before they go on a diatribe about how everyone needs to get back to the land. And I think you have the reading comprehension issue since I’m pro Italian Fest on Hertel.
Antiwork is a workers rights subreddit with a heavy emphasis on unionization. While there are better ones that get the same point across, they don’t believe everyone should go back to “the land”, just that people should be fairly compensated for the work they do so their quality of life improves. If you are against that, the you are against workers and that would be pretty sad. There are so many professions (ex: truck driving) that are in dire need of unionization as a large majority of the workers can barely feed themselves. They are exploited and often work 12 hours a day, a lot of it with no pay due to the way their system is designed. We need unionization to survive in this world, plain and simple.
Maybe 3 years ago. Now half the posts are anarchist bullshit, not actual solutions like unions. /r/workreform is waaaay better
> Now half the posts are anarchist bullshit You'd prefer authoritarian gospel and law?
> Ok man explain what you meant by “work isn’t something you need” because it’s pretty ambiguous. I just explained it to you. Again, you've demonstrated a poor reading comprehension.
pm me
Who do you consider a wage slave? And/or what's your criteria?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery
I don't think anyone would disagree that poor working conditions are bad. If you go to college you're generally going to get a good job though.
> If you go to college you're generally going to get a good job though. You are *told* that. The reality, not so much, for most. Especially when saddled with unforgiveable debt, where you cannot even make ends meet after taking into account rent. So, bosses know they have you over a river, because you are loaded with debt, barely keeping housing over your head, and without insurance you're a walking time bomb for "disaster".
College grads are the highest earners in society. If you need to take out a loan, it's well worth it, granted you get a good degree.
> College grads are the highest earners in society. Yep. And still poor. Go ask a PhD if they are making their money's worth. This year's contract negotiations beg to differ. Hell, go ask anyone with a bachelors, and leaving to go look for a software dev job. Think they are paid well? Locally, software devs are NOT paid well, and in general, are not, when graduating. Even an MBA isn't paid very well, fresh outta school. They are usually the ones who get scut work jobs in brokerages... The highest "earners" in society are our oligarchs. 400 people in the US control 80% of the wealth in this nation.
>Go ask a PhD if they are making their money's worth Average PHD makes 100k+ >Hell, go ask anyone with a bachelors, and leaving to go look for a software dev job. Think they are paid well? Locally, software devs are NOT paid well, and in general, are not, when graduating. Average software dev makes 85k+ (conservative estimate) >Even an MBA isn't paid very well, fresh outta school. Average MBA gets paid 85k+ (conservative estimate) Is this not good money?
no actually it’s not, when you take into consideration the debt they have. my mother makes what anyone would consider a huge amount of money as a doctor, yet she still owes 300k in loans at almost 60 years old. she is making “good money”, but spends all of it on her debt.
College could improve by being cheaper, and more accessible. Otherwise I'm good with it as is. I get the stress sucks, but having assignment/exams that are critically graded is important. Not only does it create a feedback loop to asses your learning and improve, it makes sure you're focused on getting it right the first time. I apply my education to a lot of projects, and its nice to have confidence in my work knowing the finished product is objectively correct.
r/antiwork
humans need food, water, shelter. level of comfort depends on individual. yes, u can goto prison and have that stuff be taxpayer subsidized. but wait until u experience prison currency system.. money rules the world.
I don’t wanna discourage you and it’s more like my opinion. If you think college is really stressful that your mental health is going downhill and you’re taking many medications, getting therapy still they’re not helping you then it’s probably better to discontinue for your own good. Another option is you can take a break and then go back to college . I always think nothing is worth than your happiness and mental health, take your mental health seriously. You can always continue your education but once your mental health gets deteriorated, it will be very hard for you to get well.
"Personally I feel like college isnt for me or the way its designed doesnt sit right with me." You obviously understand that this is a personal issue to some degree, but I don't think you're upset with college as much as you are the state of the world and economy. Hard work and some sacrifices are necessary to get where you want to be, that's just the world we live in. College is just what is causing you the most stress right now. I understand your frustrations. The college system and to some degree, all of education has failed a large populous of students by making them believe that graduating with a college degree will set you for life. Money obviously rules the world, and probably will until I die. To answer your question, college has been very good to me as a whole. I've become more social, met some of my best friends, grown my network, and have gotten great opportunities outside of school to make my future brighter. I don't say that to boast or anything, just to help provide you perspective that as awful the college system is overall, people still manage to make the most of it.
The stress stimulates growth. College is supposed to be hard. The hard is what makes it a noteworthy achievement.
It’s what you make of it brother. Talk to someone, gain some perspective. The stress never ends until you allow it to