College, is It Worth the Money or Should I Do Keg Stands at Home?

When I graduated from high school the path to take was evident. I am smart, I get good grades, next step, go to college. After a semester I found that I really didn't know what I was doing, so I quit. A year later I returned to college only to find that I still didn't know what I was doing. So, again, I quit. After two years of traveling, moving, seeing lots of music, having lots of fun, waiting lots of tables, I find myself wondering, is it time to buckle down and go back to school? For some college is good, college will yield a degree and a paycheck, but for some people it will be a big debt with no direct way to pay it back. Surrounded by an ever-changing economy and harboring indecision on choosing a career path, how can I tell if college is the right choice?

My best friend went to college, started in business, changed majors once, as most, actually fifty percent of students, do. She went into nursing, finishing in five years. Now she has a job, infinite opportunity to relocate, college debt and money to pay off that debt. When I went to school for the second time I wanted to be a marine scientist and after a year and a half I decided I didn't. I had a friend who was a biologist, well actually a biological intern. Watching him subsist off of two hundred dollars a month was a major of many factors influencing my career path. It takes a lot of interning, which could also be called volunteering, to work your way into a well-paid job, let alone a job that meets your specific interests, in field biology. While each friend chose a degree in science the end results are much different. I would love to be exploring the depths of the oceans but I would rather have a career that affords a trip to the Caribbean.

I did not return to Hawaii to continue Marine Science for many reasons: the first being money, as I already stated, the second was my desire to be a ski bum for the winter, maybe it wasn't the money! The third was my knowledge that my true passion lies in writing. I have always loved writing and art and should have known while science is interesting and a subject that I excel in, creativity is the best application of my skills; though the thought of having to write a bestseller or paint a masterpiece to pay off my college loans is daunting. If I am going to school to write a bestseller, why don't I just skip school and write? I do well in a constructive learning environment, but is life the greatest school? They say the best thing you can do as a writer is read, so why pay big bucks to read when a library card is free? For some, like my friend the nurse or the biologist, school is the best way, the only way. For me it is unclear which direction to take, I could devote myself to school, or keep working and write in my free time.

I decided to ask the Internet, is college a waste of time? Before I got through the word college on ask.com it auto-filled waste of time! James Altucher seems to think so, estimating college costs to be between 200,000 to 400,000 dollars; yikes, where have I been? That might be a little high; college is between 5,000 and 30,000 a year depending on financial aid, but factor in living costs the total bill will be up there, close to that range. He suggests that a diploma will never be worth the cost; that young adults would be better off with the cash in hand and some kind of entrepreneurial inclination, read more at

ft.com. However, for someone like myself, that cash is not available for withdraw; my money for college comes in an institutional loan form. He did lead me to believe that writing as a career is within my reach and that I am already on the right path. His advice is to focus on one thing and look for opportunities to do that, like an internet-content blog, which I just started and will be receiving a paycheck for this week! After I receive my first paycheck can I call myself a writer or am I and have I always been a writer?

I was watching television at motel in New York after a series of concerts and someone on TV said, “I write therefore I am.” That is great, the most important state of being, but after that I think you might want to be able to say, “I write and therefore I am paid.” And then, “I write therefore I feed, clothe and house myself.” So college is one way to get to the last state but is there a different route?