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Bastards,
The time has come. I must be getting on with my higher “education”.
Only problem is, I’m not so keen on going. I’ve got some time to decide on what I want to do. I love to learn, however, I would rather apply myself, really dig in and do it, than go through another four years of formal education. I think I’d learn more and do more. It’s hard enough to sit still for 45 minutes. I’ll see a map of god knows what country in the room and that’ll be it, my mind is gone for the whole class..Sounds like the typical rich, white westerner bullshit. We all know anyone in the “third world” would snatch the opportunity up, probably work harder than I will, and work their balls off to pay for it and then send money back home. But since I’m too spoiled to just go, I’ve got a decision to make.
I’ve been thinking about holding off on going to college, and seeing if I can make it being a pj or a writer. I think I’ve got what it takes without a degree in some conventional, instiutionalized education. Nothing’s better than field experience. Yeh, I’d probably be hungry but I’d be doing it.
What do you guys think? I just want to fucking do it. Get out there and do it. I hate talk and I don’t know if I could handle four more years of schooling with people who talk about saving the world but can’t get out of their own way. Youd don’t like to see children starving? Then go out there and teach them sustainable agriculture.
I’d have to have some fallback plan of sorts and I could always get accepted and hold off for a year and see how I make out. I’ve got this naive idea that somehow I’m going to make a difference, so I will.
So from a professional standpoint am I nuts? Yeh, there are 3,000 photographers who are better snappers and 3,000 writers who are better, but I think I have an edge. The odds are against me. Then again, the odds are against 3/4 of the worlds population.
If I could get in with an agency or write for a newspaper or a magazine then you know, that’d help.
This is turning into a rant. Let me know what you think.
Since you’re young and stupid(offence intended), you might as well try. But give yourself a time limit.
After a few years if it doesn’t pan, accept the fact that The Man has brought you down and go into the corporate american morgue called Everyday Life. You really don’t want to be broke at 50 with nothing to show for your existence. Early life adventures are great but if it all fucks up or doesn’t get you anywhere in a reasonable period of time you had best pull up the rug and change apartment buildings.
A time limit. That’s all I suggest. Asshole.(Just trying to harden you for the evils of the non-academic world, that’s all.)
8)
Nick,
Let me say this to you: You have to go to school. No matter what other people may tell you. If you want to live the rest of your life as a low-paid freelancer, then no, you probably don’t have to have school behind you. Here is the thing though, people will always, always ask you what school you went to, and whether it is fair or not, judge you by your answer. If you will ever hope for that elusive staff job, you will need to have a degree, or an impossible amount of awards, kudos, etc…
Look at the big American publications, look at the writers and photogs whose work you respect, and find out where they went to school. Chances are that they all have degrees, and most from good schools.
Having said that, taking a year off is a fine idea to get real world experience, but I agree, a time limit is key. It takes years and years to get the ball rolling even a little- I would not expect to even get one assignment during that year. Decide on two or three good, deep personal projects you can do and go do them- then come back and go to school…….
Nick,
Taking off a year first is an ok idea – in fact it is quite common in England and Australia, NZ etc. Do it and try to make something of it with your writing etc.
But please accept the fact that university is a MUST at some point. At university, you will get plenty of opportunities to travel if you plan right. Hell, study languages and you can probably go on exchange to some pretty cool places – major in Arabic with a minor in French and you can go to many cool places if you choose the right school. (There are many other courses that could include travel too – you just have to be a little imaginative and proactive) Then there is your vacation too. I can only dream of having the opprtunities to travel that I had at university.
Nick:
Go 3 semesters, take a year to freelance or whatever, Go 3 semesters, take a year to freelance or whatever, Go 3 semesters, (since you probably failed some classes) and you have a combination of “real world experience” and a “Traditional Collage Degree”.
Either way around you will have to get your degree, that’s just the way it is, but I think the above way would be the best combination so you can have your cake and eat it to. If I had to do over that’s the way I would of done it.
Thanks all. But SRR, you forgot arrogant, naive, and ignorant. Just remember that I get that everyday from my girlfriend….
Yeh, the question is do I give it a go for a year and then go to university or just go straight to university.
I agree, a degree is a neccesity. There is no way around that. So I understand the necessity of going.
Next on the list is going down to look at American in DC and probably Goucher and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. I just looked at RIT and Skidmore.
I guess majoring in journalism is stupid as an undergrad. I would go to study writing, history, economics, international relations, French etc.
I remember reading somewhere that MTH said that getting a degree in journalism isn’t worth it?
I’m trying to go to Yemen this summer to study Arabic for a month… I think Arabic/French is the way to go. With a little bit of Creole and Spanish thrown in for good measure… :)
Nick,
Ignore them all… Forget University. Go and live a bit.
Travel the world, meet people, get experiences etc…
You’ll get a job when you get back.You think I’m kidding?
I left school when I was 16, didn’t look back. Had to blag my way into a job a while back. Now I’m a Senior Technical Consultant on a very tidy salary.All my friends who went onto further education ended up in pretty shit jobs.
It worked for me. It could work for you. All depends how resourceful you are, or think you could be.
That’s what I think, but hey, follow your heart.
8)
college is a great way to do some travelling and some learning. and also to do some networking for when getting a job becomes a priority. you don’t have to go, but i think it’d be a good idea. you can still do some work while you are there for local papers, and get some experience. study abroad and write about where you went. do some photography for your university’s publicity shit.
and you’ve always got summer, winter, and spring breaks to go on the road, too. college ain’t a bad idea at all, especially if you can get some scholarships to lighten the financial pressure.
Play the numbers.
For every Lee that scores a great job without a degree there are 100 Joes hauling garbage for $5/hr.
If I had my time over at University I would have stuck with languages.
Nick, studying political science would be a waste of time for you. You already know more than half the people who would be tutoring you. If you are inquisitive enough (and you seem to be) then history and economics would also be a bad call.
Study languages and the world is your oyster.
@nick wrote:
That was more of the bastard response I was looking for!
That’s my boy!
Don’t listen to that Rob fella, boring old git!
8)
My opinion lies halfway between Rob and Lee.
I know loads of journalists who have nice degrees that for all they cost, are practically useless on the average day. I agree that you need an education, but look at education as something that will put a roof over your head when everybody else is sleeping rough.
Be practical. If you want a degree that will allow you to travel to exciting places and will be useful when you go there, get one that is hands on, like medicine, various types of engineering (especially sanitary), or even learn to cook, be a plumber, electrician (or electronic tech) etc.
All this will make you employable and even sought after either in DPs or at home (washing machines break down all the time and hospitals never have enough staff including dentists and maintence crews and cooks) all over the world. Nurses are always in demand, for example (it pays shit, but you can do it till you die).
Walking into a DP and letting everybody know that you are a lawyer or have a degree in Politics, International Relations, Celtic Studies (yes I have met them too) or plain old English (some people assume this is all they need to become a journo-in fact you barely need to be literate) will be met with laughter and derision. Okay, it’s good if you want to spend all day sitting in an office, but do you? Having a degree in Finance/ Economics etc is useful, but while you go to Kosovo, Congo or Kabul, you will still be stuck in an office and live in a compound behind big blast walls. But if that is what you want, then by all means.
Rob was right, languages aren’t that hard and having a few on your resume will make you look much smarter than you really are (great way to bullshit and get laid) and will seriously increase your ability to travel (you will be the tripod carrier and translator at first before being made the journo because cutbacks mean the monolingual dumb journo gets laid off-plus you are cheaper). Languages on their own are good, but better if backed up with some practical ,hands on skills.
I am sick, sore and tired of being around nice people with fancy qualifications from big name places that couldn’t wire a plug or change the oil in a car (and this is kids stuff). Some of the guys in my office can’t even drive, for god’s sake (this is what you get from spending your whole life in an office with a useless degree) and none ever mowed the lawn at home. That’s tragic.
I should also advise you that having DP experience will do more harm to your future employment prospects than help it (I’m speaking from experience here).
You will be looked at as some sort of nutcase and will be called ‘a free spirit’ which is a condescending term for ‘sad, dangerous and probably unreliable’. I.e. “We don’t want you here” and the only people who will give you the time of day will likely be ex-military types, or if you are lucky, someone with a similar attitude (but you won’t find many of them in HR positions).I know people with fantastic histories who had nightmarish times trying to get jobs and some of these guys had honours from the Queen, but it still didn’t help them get a job.
One way or another you will have to conform and get with the programme and eventually put on a shirt and tie, buy a house and settle down with your girlfriend and raise kids.
You will have to support them (it will be a two income family because the cost of living makes it so) and in the evenings you will be able to tell your kids and grandkids wonderful stories about the DPs you visited and they will be proud of you, not just because of where you have been, but because you fixed all the toys they broke (and replaced many, many broken windows), sorted out their computers, re-wired the bedroom and cooked them dinner. That’s called love.DPs or no DPs, there’s still a role for people who can do all those things and many grateful people who will love you for being able to do it.
Or, if you don’t want any of that, then may I suggest you take a little walk down to where all the homeless people are looked after (I believe you call them ‘Bums’ in the US) and you will see those who thought likewise (and you won’t see many educated people amongst them-I worked with homeless people for ages), have no family that loves them, are bitter and envious (‘I could have been someone’) and blame everybody but themselves.
Having a decent education means that you won’t have to take shit from people (try working in a lowly paid job-it’s where all the egotistical bullies with massive chips on their shoulders end up and they will lay into you every day forever) and can tell them to fuck off. Not having an education means you have to grin and bear it and too bad about you.
A good education is the best passport for visa-free travel you will get.
Nick,
Listen to them all and then do what you really want…..
Being in a school or dp and not wanting to be there is not especially productive.An education, wisely choosed opens many doors. That ignorant ppl will close if you have the skils but not the degree. but you are still young, you have time to get both some experience and a an education. The question is in what order to do it. i know what it means to be school tired, but know that if you are running around living life and doing interesting things-it will be HELL going back to school.
You will have less money than ususal (I thought I was poor before I became a student) and you are probably older then your fellow students, both agewise and mentally.
You will be the “old”, strange guy knowing everything about malaria and dengue, the easiest ways to make poision gas in your toilett stool and explosives in the dorm kitchen and so on. And at the same time totally incompetent to understand the student pranks.Another thing you have to think about. After a while as a student at “the university of life”, you will have gathered alot of knowledge and experience that as Mike said, will work against you.
That’s when “Creative landscaping” and other nice terms turns up in your CV, it may also be a good idea to shorten it.The stupidest thing I ever did in my life was try to hurry up with college. (as it turned out to be useless)
Take a year off, travel a bit, work on a plan then come back if you want.
If I was 18 again and knew what I know now, I would have headed off to Europe right away traveled a bit and then looked for some under the table job soemoplace that I liked.
Since I never really got a career type career until I was 32 I would have probably done better , and had more fun.
But hindsight is perfect and the situation might be different for you.
Livelife, when I got back from Haiti school was like that. I got real irritated by all the typical high school drama. Things that would have been funny before weren’t anymore. It put a lot of shit into perspective. And, I think I’m losing the perspective I gained there a bit. When you’re too involved with your own shit, it ruins perspective. I learn some new stuff and forget the old. I force myself to remember though.
Def. afraid of not wanting to go back to school too. Cos I know I would struggle with that. Big time. It happens everytime I travel though. I’m still in country, I’ve got a day left, and I’m already itching to get out again.
So languages, and writing for majors?
You would think that haveing good DP experience and still being alive would help you out… Too bad..
After graduating high school, I’m buying a damned Land Rover or Toyota and driving Africa. Anyone done this? Hit some spots just for a little fun. I wonder how much I can get a truck there for.
Ahhhhh Nicky lad the existencial crisis!
I alas am similar to Lee, but I’m not too sure I’d recommend the same track that I took. I networked and got pretty lucky and persevered. The irony is I’ve been in a university now for almost 30 years and got lots of educational benefits as part of the work.
I think travel is great young and the travel I did when I was young left lasting impressions, on the other hand I’m not quite sure that the travel I’ve done at an older age would have been appreciated the same way older as when I was younger, perspective sort of thang. Sounds convoluted I know.
A few things.
Women will complicate things.
Be patient.
I made decent money at 19 driving a trashtruck (Rob!!!) although we did get fucked up all the time, thus squandering much of it.
Marry rich, the rest will sort itself out.
Sorry I’m sure that was of absolutely NO help :?
Best,
StivHaving plenty of DP experience gets you nowhere in normal life. People will look at you as foolhardy and a bit wild, which doesn’t fit with the settled mentality. They can’t relate to it and it may draw out the inferiority complex in some of your managers who dream of such adventures, but never had the guts to do it themselves.
Ever wonder why the world is full of unemployable ex military and war correspondents? (at least some of the NGOs have valuable medical and engineering skills).Yeah, it makes a man out of you and could make the difference between you and the other yuppies in the office if someone decides to blow up the bus or go nuts with their collection of armalites in the office (and how often in a lifetime does that happen to you?), but otherwise the city needs gentle types who go with the flow and know how to be diplomatic and follow the rules.
The money is better, the life is better and the food is better (plus you get to shower and even eat once a day). The jungle survival skills you learn are for the most part useless. Surviving and thriving in the city (urban jungle) is far more difficult and dangerous. Don’t believe me? Try filling out a tax form or moving house (and I haven’t even mentioned stuff about getting mugged or burgled yet) or just getting a well paid job, getting laid and buying a house to see why your parents grumble so much.
Travel by all means, but remember that life on the road is at best 15 years (far, far less for the majority) and soon enough everyone has to come back to momma. Most of my buddies have kids in their early to mid 40s, some with colleagues, some with rent-a-wifes from exotic third world countries.
You could be smart and get a well paid job (no one in their right mind works for nothing) that allows you to travel to all the cool places, but getting one of them without an education is slim.
So you do and spend decades living out of hotels and crappy rooms, carrying everything you own in a battered rucksack from pillar to post, then you will get sick of living like a tramp because you never have your own place, keep getting gear stolen, keep getting sick and spend way too much time around people who hate you, so you never relax.
The one thing that keeps a lot of these types on the road is an overweening sense of self destruction because everything is transitory and you rarely get to stay anywhere long enough to appreciate it. Even the Pope has a tough schedule and bands like Rolling Stones only ever see places like Rio from behind the microphone stand. Business travellers ping pong from airport to hotel to office and back to the airport and barely get a chance to do anything recreational except change ties (okay, it’s a tiny exagerration).
It all becomes a blur after a while and the novelty doesn’t take long to wear off. Airports, bus and train stations are full of the most obnoxious and criminal types you are ever likely to encounter and everyone wants to rip you off, while the thought of any more fast food will make you violently ill (again).
One way to survive is to be lobotomised and castrated because nothing else will keep you going. I say this because what eventually drives most people into a semi-detached bungalow in suburbia is lonliness.
It doesn’t take long for the novelty of pricey escorts girls, cheap whores and one night stands with colleagues and other strangers to wear off. That is when you wish there was someone waiting at home who loves you, not some bitchy receptionist.
You get the loving wife and kids when you are at home most of the time, not away most of the time. That is when you can have your cake and eat it, although the destinations may not be that exciting.There’s plenty of jobs that will give you all the adrenalin and DP experiences you can handle and they go wailing past your window every day (and seriously increase your chance of regular sex) with sirens blazing. You know what I’m on about and even a few years of that will do you no harm if you want to hit the DPs later on. I’m not just on about the emergency services.
There are plenty of highly skilled social workers battling against the odds in skid row and any number of sub saharan countries would cry tears of joy at the thought of having you come over and help sort out their endless mess because all of their former colleagues helped deliver your last child, making a fortune where you live, compared to working for $10 a month at home.
Sheep aren’t as dumb as they look.
Jeez mikethehack and I thought I was cynical….
A turning point in my life of more importance than I realized then was arriving at art school and escaping the suburban working class bubble, seeing the educated urbanites living a semi-intellectual(but naturally, deeply flawed and left wing) lifestyle with many haut-cauture trappings that simply didn’t exist while I pissed away my non-schooling hours at minimum wage jobs at the freeway turnoff. What I remember most were these toned, chipper, friendly and smart men in their early 40’s who were a vast departure from the broken, bitter, bloated men in their early 40’s who had bought into the house-and-wife-and-kids lifestyle and seemed to regret every waking moment of their lives.
Yes, the men in their 40’s who seemed to be most content with their existence were either gay or single. Ruling out the former, MTH’s insistence on conforming for conformancy’s sake is not a healthy option. You’d do best to do all the drugs and shag all the third world hookers you can so you gracefully bow out at the big four-oh, rather than stick around for the check in desk to God’s waiting room, better known as Suburban middle age.
Of course what this means is that any real ties to the opposite sex early in life are a total waste and one must find room to settle; or not. The only path to real success is to be independently wealthy, and writing about travelling doesn’t do that. Perhaps do some stock trading and look into income funds to get the ball rolling on living that non-working lifestyle. The problem with working for someone else is that you’ll eventually end up not working for them.
I’m also of the opinion that once you’ve crossed the threshold from waffling two weeks away in Cancun with the evil female you’ve somehow found yourself attached to, there is little point in turning back. You’ll be more interested in living in a multiethnic, heavily educated urban society because the chances of being around people who identify with your worldview are larger. The white picket fences aren’t for people who question authority, and you’d be doing yourself a disservice by trying to fit in there.
The neighbours will chatter endlessly about your weird hobbies and you’ll probably eventually be driven from the neighbourhood as a suspected paedophile. The chattering masses are not kind to those who live beyond the grid.
The romances on the road are the best and most bittersweet, fleeting etc you will ever have. Getting wasted with the missus down the local just isn’t the same.Yes, you will shag a few princesses and other wonderfully exotic types and fall wildly and passionately in love several times and probably have less, but bettter sex with women who would normally be out of your league at home.
There’s plenty of good points to travel, but I just like to be the devil’s advocate, that’s all. You can travel even if you can’t walk anymore, but eventually we all have to settle down and learning old tricks again will be damned difficult and you will feel totally out of place.
You can have your cake and eat it, just like there is always a chance you can win the lottery or live happily ever after (I have met 80 year old couples who are still madly in love and have been together since they were teenagers), so expect the worst and you won’t be disappointed (after that everything is a bonus).
The beauty of life is its innocence and nothing destroys innocence more brutally than war. Enjoy your youth and make the most of the innate curiosity while you can, because before long that attitude turns to cynicism and chicks don’t dig that.
I’ve already become cynical and I know it. My college counselor gave me a book about exporting free market capitalism/democracy to the third world. So today at college counseling she asked if I had begun to read it. I told her I had and that I was pleased that the author goes on about Rwanda at some length because no one gives a fuck about Rwanda. She then tells me that it’s not true and people do care about Rwanda. So I get off on some tangent about how it’s not profitable to report on African wars and that a good majority of them have been fifty times more vicious than the conflict in the Balkans and that in a decade less than 100,000 had been killed whereas in African wars, you can get that casualty count in a month, but still there was more in depth coverage on the Balkans than any filthy African war. And you know basically that what gets reported on is reported on for a reason and that those decisions are made by people who wield tremendous power and influence. Journos who venture where few dare to report on are few and far between for several reasons. I then asked them if they thought that what goes on in Uganda and the usage of child soldiers would be reported on more in depth if they were white. Or that if white people were dying in the DR Congo by what, three million now, if the reportage would be different. I asked them why they thought the Balkans got so much coverage etc. etc. Oh because it’s so close to Europe and could spill into Europe blah blah blah and economics blah blah blah, what happens in Africa doesn’t effect our business interests blah blah blah and more bullshit. Congratulations class on being successfully indoctrinated! I was way off the mark guys! What the fuck do I know about these things? Here I have five people arguing with me about shit they haven’t the slightest idea about. Not saying that I know anything at all, but seriously guys.
Most people think I’m a nut by now. And when I asked for a class trip to Senegal or somewhere in Africa like Cairo most everyone was a little less than enthused. They said that the parents wouldn’t be down for that so then I told them that they should educate themselves on the true situations in African nations and that they shouldn’t let their prejudices control their fear of traveling there. Well I got an earful for that too. Can you imagine that? Fucking scandalous that I should suggest a trip to the Dark Continent.
I’d freak out if I worked behind a desk. I’m freaking out right now. And you’re right, the white picket fence deal isn’t for me. Bow out at forty, not a bad idea.
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