I wouldn’t normally post something like this, but i’m just trying to get some ideas. This isn’t a rant and i’m not looking to start any arguments.
Basically I’m tired of my current life and in dire need of change. So I’m going to look into going back to college and I need to move.
To give some details on my curent life, i’m 24 soon to be 25 in late sept. I’ve been doing pc software compatibility testing since 2000 at the same company. While the job is somewhat fun as its mostly games I test and it pays pretty well, I just don’t want to do it anymore and its a pretty dead end job.
I’ve been living in Baltimore all my life and I need to move away far, preferably to another country. I don’t have a college degree as I failed out the first time, not because im stupid just because at the time I was very lazy and would never study. I’d like to go back to college for something engineering related, not really computer engineering just some type of engineering in general.
So im looking just for some ideas on college degrees I should get, places to move, and what colleges to go to and ways of paying for it.
I have no idea how to answer this, and judging from the views/posts ratio, no one else does either. I’m not sure any of us know you well enough to answer this question. Sounds like a quarter-life crisis, to be honest. I think going back to school is a great idea; a degree gets you places you can’t get otherwise. But I think the school should be in the U.S. Despite some rantings about education in this country, U.S. college degrees tend to be worth more, at least in most areas. Engineering is almost certainly one of those areas. So if you are serious about the engineering degree, I would give up the idea of moving to another country, at least for now.
Before going off and doing something, have you asked yourself what you want to do? I’ve found in my experience that success and contentment comes from pursuing your passions, not from the job or education.
The people I know who are generally in a rut or otherwise floundering are the ones that don’t really have anything they WANT to do. I had a girlfriend one time that I broke up with because when I asked her “If you could be anything, what would it be?” and her answer was “I dunno, sleep all day”. No ambition, nothing she was interested in, no hobbies, nothing.
Anyway, point being figure out what you really, truly enjoy, and go from there.
Going to a new place can be rewarding and fun. You can also build a lot of confidence going somewhere and putting together a new life, but it’s hard. You get lonely and you have so much to do (find food, shelter, work, avoid typical pitfalls like drugs, depression). It’s especially tough the first year. I knew a guy who insisted that going on the lamb builds character.
When I was in my 20s I did something similar, moving to NYC from a smallish town in PA. I got a BA during that time and that was easily one of the most life changing experiances I’ve ever had. As for logistics, if you move to a new area and go to college, you typically have to live there for a year before you can qualify for the lower tuition rates. I’m not sure if all schools are like this, but I imagine all the state run schools are. Maybe choose an area in the US to move to, based on the kind of degree you want to obtain. Give yourself the first year to get aquainted with the area.
Beware: some people move around a lot looking for things to be different, but no matter where you go, you really have to make your own changes happen. Keep in mind the old saying: Wherever you go, there you are!
Right, that’s sort of what I was trying to get at in my post – the source of discontentment is often internal, and while it’s better to do something than nothing to fix it, radical life changes rarely end up being fixes.
I am going to go a different path in my response, since you’re somewhat where I was.
Take a year, and go to Korea or Taiwan. Get a job teaching English, or if you’re really brave (it’s not dangerous, just takes balls) - sell jewelry on the street like I did.
Either way, it’s super easy money. Both Koreans and Taiwanese are very friendly people, you will have no shortage of friends there if you want them. The other foreigners living there are always easy to talk to - you always have something to start a conversation with. Unlike city living in the US or Canada, you can actually walk up to a complete stranger and start talking to them and you won’t be maced or looked at funny.
As for the logistical… I rented a storage locker the size of a small garage, parked my car in it, along with all of my crap. It worked out fine.
If you want money, you can make a lot of it in Korea or Taiwan with basically no skills but English, if you want to work hard. If you don’t want to, you can make enough to live there fairly well (in a foreigners hotel, which is the place to be if you like ass and partying.) and save a little just working a day or two a week.
The other thing… Doing this will change your life. It will broaden your horizons. You may not ever want to live in the US again. The only reason I came back at all was because I figured if I followed my British buddy to India, I may never be able to get a job in the real world again. Now I just want to get the hell out of this country again. Good luck. :)
Move to Australia and jump on our welfare system! It’s what I’ve been doing for the last 5 years and my life is great. I get paid for sitting on my ass and chatting on IRC nearly everyday ( I’m a volunteer in my ‘spare time’ ).
That or you could move to Australia and get a job here. Just don’t move to Tasmania or South Australia ( first one is as boring as shit, the other one doesn’t have drinkable water ).
What’s been said about finding the answer within is true…But plunking yourself down in a new place where you HAVE to change can help you to break all the easy, familiar habits that you’ve been cycling through all this time instead of working to find the answer.
I think the teach-English-abroad idea is a good one. Just make sure that when you come back you don’t come back to the exact same life as before!
Before I start, remember this is Salty Bill comin’ at you and you asked for it.
Hang on. Your job is somewhat fun and it pays well? Mine pays well but it fucking sucks, so you’ve got one up on me dude. Anyway, how well is well? Can you sock away cash in savings, save for a house/new ride/etc. or by well, do you mean “I can pay all of my bills every month no sweat?” Those are two different things, obviously.
Is your current job the type where you go in, punch your time, do your thing, score some occasional OT, but you pretty much leave it all at the door when you go home? I’d hang onto that job, at least for the time being. Look for a part-time job, one you can do at home, in the evenings. Shmooze with co-workers. Lots of people are doing some low-time, nifty paycheck stuff in their spare time to supplement their income. But really, the problem isn’t so much your job, I don’t think. More on that later!
Being lazy and not studying is stupid, incidentally. Look at you now. But, never mind that. Let’s talk about how stupid going back to college to become a Something As Long As It Isn’t Computer (Maybe) Engineer Engineer would be. Now there’s a plan of attack that’s foolproof. I’m not saying don’t go back. If you do, be ready for some changes - changes that, fortunately, you claim you’re ready to make. Let’s pretend the real problem is that you do need a new direction in life, an occupationally-related one.
Oh shit, did he say “paying for it?” Are you a (technical) minority? Female? Embraced at Gone Gold for your varied and sundry congenital defects? You may already be approved! There are hella grants and scholarships for anyone who isn’t white and male in this country. Even if you are of that demographic, if you’re independent, you can score some help.
Now, I don’t want to assume you’re black simply because you are born and raised in Balty but dude, if you are: pick a fucking campus in Anywhere, USA and get busy. If you are going to go back to college, I’d definitely move far away - not to another country though, you’re waaaaay too underprepared for that significant a change IMO - and then never tell fucking anyone you ever went to college and flunked out. No! Tell no one. Ever. Those shit grades will haunt you forever if you do. So, you gotta take them core classes again. I think it’ll do you some good. Fuck what you think you want, your Nonspecific Engineering degree. Whatta you gonna do, whip through 4 years of an undergrad engineering curriculum, then charge right into a Master’s and the PhD program? Because, oh wait, you aren’t thinking you’ll snag your BS in Engineering and get scooped up by NASA, did you? Oh, God. Forget it. You’ll wind up with a job a billion times worse than the one you have now. And then, they’ll just lay you off one day when an inevitable recession hits.
For other education-related ideas, if you can manage to end up at some school, get a part-time job working for the school, there’s only like a billion jobs at any given university and the turnover is like wow, you know? That’ll often earn you some perks and perhaps a discount on your tuition. Also, see if your current job offers money for schooling. If not, fucking find one that does - again, in like Albuquerque or something (seriously - New Mexico is rapidly becoming the place to move to. Arizona’s okee but housing has shot up pretty steep over the past few years, not so much yet in NM). Lots of corporations wil throw down cash for you to get schooling and maybe be of better, more competent service to them someday. Hey, if they’re paying for classes, hopefully they’ll be groovy with the core stuff too and not only pay for stuff related to the field. Get that core stuff, man. Why?
Face it tronnc, you have no goddamned idea what the Hell you want. Just go, sponge off the government/corporate teat for aid and hoover up 101 courses like Cheetoes. You may just find something you like, that you never knew or had forgotten you did. Also, and here’s where we tie it all together, and you’ll all pardon mon Frances, you’ll be in delightfully close proximity to [color=violet]HOT YOUNG PUSSY[/color].
You seem so sad and downtrodden, tronnc. You need some hot, horny, co-ed love, my man. Oh, now I really hope you’re black. You’ll need to hire an assistant to keep track of all the pussy you’ll be getting. Join some local U. club. You’ll be 25, and they’ll beg you to help out with trips and stuff, since you can rent the van in your name, since you’re 25 and all. Oh yeah, 25 is the fucking magic number for these girls. But wait. You say all you do is sit around and play games? Uh oh.
Are you pudgy and doughy? Lose the poundage, Chubsy. I want you in the gym. I want you to write short stories about all the times you’ve been rejected and left hanging by some Molly McWallflower in your past, and I want you angry about it. Get in there and stomp on their faces with every step on the treadmill (I recommend the elliptical machine though). I want you in there twice a day, 3 days on, 1 day off. A want a morning or lunchtime 20-30 minutes run on the elliptical, then an afternoon (straight from work) with some low-weight, high rep lifting and another 20 minutes on the fucking ellip machine, Son. 3-4 months, if you stop drinking beer (for the meanwhile, you’ll need your tolerance back by college time) and stop eating complete shit and drinking soda, and you’ll drop 30 pounds, easy (you’ll get 10 or so back in muscle mass, so don’t freak on the weight differential). You’ll lose even more if you’re a fat fuck.
As the saying goes: breakfast like a king, lunch like a knight, dinner like a pauper. No foodsies after 6 or 7 PM. Eat immediately after your PM workout, while your tummy is still all jumbly from the gym. Whack down protein shakes for snacks (fuck mixing them with milk, use Gatorade inthe perfectly-sized 20-oz bottles) and/or right before meals, to fill your stomach. Tape Fear Factor and watch it whenever you get hungry. Oh, you’ll get hungry alright, a fucking nasty deep gnaw that you have to fight off, because that is exactly when you’re gonna start dropping pounds like Junior Mints at the late show. Order some pills with Ephedra in them from Taiwan. Fuck those warnings, no substance on Earth is as effective at burning fat and - most importantly - readjusting your body weight equilibrium so that you aren’t as likely to gain it back. Allow for time to build a proper tolerance, so you don’t drop dead of an asploded heart like all them dumb fatties that got that wonderful shit banned. With that and all health supplements, don’t even go near the fucking dosages/portions listed on the bottle. Those were written up for 240-lb lunkhead powerlifters who have to ask their 8-year-old nieces to read it to them. I’d go halvsies tops, on anything.
You won’t hardly be able to tell, because we’re all body dysmorphic basketcases, but a toned physique with most of the sloppy fat trimmed will make an enormous difference. It’s that subtle change where your waistline tapers in from your back and shoulders. It’s enough for a start. Don’t puss out on the shoulder and back exercises, either. Working out those areas contributes more to your overall physique than fucking wheezing out on a curl bar or even bench press. Don’t tell anyone you’re hitting the gym, unless you want a partner (not a bad idea, usually keeps you honest, try to go with someone you don’t know know too well and you’ll feel obligated to show up for his/her sake, and vice-versa). When the people around you start to notice you’re getting in shape, then you truly are. Once you’re dialed in, move to New Mexico and enroll in Pussy 101. I suggest English and Psychology courses. Not Art, despite the enticing male:female ratio. Those chicks are bananas, and the guys are queer.
If you can’t score a nice pad wherever you are, go for the gusto and live in a fucking dilapidated trailer in some awful trailer park. Have girls over as, ha ha, “study buddies,” but never act like your living situation bothers you. Just say Hey, wow, you shoulda seen my old place! Now that was a dump! These little college girls from their upper-middle class homes will eat you alive over your noble suffering. (Sleep with a gun, though) Oh yeah, and never actually hit on any of them, ever. It’s college, they’ll come after you. Anyway, you’ll totally blow it with any girl you’d try to mack on, because you’re clumsy and incompetent and no girl wants you for the poser you end up being when you’re putting on the moves. They’ll like you when you’re just being you (hopefully). Be all “Yeah, I’m not so much into having a serious girlfriend right now.” I don’t care if it’s the hottest girl you’ve ever actually spoken words to and have gotten actual words in reply that aren’t full of insults and threats to notify the authorities, don’t blow it at the zero hour.
It’ll take a little while, maybe, but it’ll happen. Soon as you stop trying to make it happen, and whining about the pathetic state of your erstwhile existence, it will. Incidentally, I’m not busting your balls for dropping this Dear Abby on us, provided you recognize I’m not blowing smoke up your dillhole or you’re an the verge of crying or punching your monitor because I was blunt and mean or whatever. It ain’t like that, yo.
Failing any or all of that, learn to play the fucking bass or drums and join a band (any band that isn’t death thrash fuck metal) and you’ll be swingin’. You don’t have to play well, by the by - no chick is out to give it up to a dude because he’s a fucking bass virtuoso or the reincarnation of Keith Moon.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. Like what has already been said, your problem is you, and your crazy notion to move to fucking Abu Dhabi or whatever is proof positive of that, to me at least. If that’s too much to chew on, start with the exercise stuff regardless. You could work in a buttfuck factory as a product tester and you’d still be groovy with it, if you were finally getting laid properly.
