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Diaryland

I Start Fires!

Lexiroth
Her Rainess
Lizsama
'Cedez
Moonie
Pipey
Timofsky
Motro
Squeeky
Lady Maverick
DM
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Chokie

2003-01-05

Piggy's specs were nicked at: 12:04 a.m.

James Herriot, author of All Creatures Great and Small wrote, "You're either a horse person, or you're not." He wasn't a horse person, but I am a horse person.

The tragic bit is, I'm a horse person who lives in the city. But I've always loved the beasts, and I rekindled my fondness when I visited my aunt on New Year's day. She lives north of Toronto (Uxbridge), and has two horses, one of which is 15 hands high. I spent a bit of time with them. I didn't ride ... they're not ride-able (OK), and besides, I'm lousy at riding. But I just like being around horses. Something thrilling about petting an animal that can kill you if the fancy takes it. They're beautiful and radiate power and I sometimes believe I was meant to live on a farm. I wish I could find some work involving horsies. Sigh.

I am DISTURBED. This is because I've noticed a DISTURBING trend.

I'm currently stuck in a shitty job, but it could be worse. I haven't finished school yet and I'm young, so I can safely say my job isn't my career choice. But I'm starting to think that college is a cod.

I have a friend from my old college program who's working full time as a stock boy in the Sears at my mall. He finished the course with good marks, he's charasmatic, and he can't find a job. Neither can another friend of mine who took the same course. And neither can a bunch of high school friends of mine who finished their college courses and are stuck as waiters at the mall's Rainforest Cafe because they can't find jobs.

These are not slackers who took easy courses. They were hard working students and cool people besides.

I've already made up my mind that I'm not going back to my old course, Digital Media Technical Production (I paused to get married, and will continue school when David is allowed to work, which will be quite soon). If the course sounds like horseshit, that's because it is. I probably should've paid attention when all my profs turned out to be former students.

I guess we all got into the computer racket a little too late, and I don't plan to stay where I'm useless.

On the other hand ... I'm going to be honest. I hate school almost as much as I hate menial labour. Professors have really small pee-pees, and they make up for their small persons by talking as if their opinions are the only ones that matter on the subject. Then they'll ramble on for hours about the books they've published. I could've saved myself some time and just pulled money out of my bank account and flushed it down the loo. Would've been the same end.

There is a very thin line between "Learning on your own," as Profs call it, and simply wasting money. I had one Prof who must've been Lucifer's personal drill sargent in a past life. I knew nothing about DOS and he packed my head full of of .bat files. Then he gave us a major project which looked overwhelming at first. But he said, "You know 90% of what you need to know to complete this." He was right. I'd gone from knowing zero about DOS to writing my own installation program.

My other profs, on the other hand, simply refused to teach us anything and told us to "learn on your own." And I'm paying thousands of dollars because...?

So I'm thinking of going into nursing, of course, but I found out I'm going to need advanced grade 12 physics and mathematics. Ugh. I'll probably go for it, but now I'm seriously thinking of chucking it all and becoming a hardcore writer. I wonder if I have the dedication.

College / University is great if you have a destination in mind. If you want to be a doctor, you go to school of course. But I wonder about these thousands of kids coming out of high school who have no idea what they want to be, but "Go to college" is shoved down their throat. So more often than not, they take a course they don't want and end up with a job they don't want -- if they can find one at all. Parents need to realize that once a kid is out of high school, they're an adult. It's time for them to make their own decisions. And if they decide "I'm going to take some time off before I go to college," listen to them for the Love of God. Don't force them into college. Else misery may follow, and -- shudder -- a 9 to 5 office job they don't want.