It's All Stagnant to me...

The search continues and with all my friends everywhere but here, my sanity is only as present as my ability to entertain myself. I've become fairly obsessed with a "Third Eye Blind" Pandora station and researching different opinions on the worth/worthlessness of a college degree.

When I was beginning to apply for colleges, and in talking with my younger sister, who's first semester will begin this August, my family came to the conclusion that college has become a pertinent part of this generation's resume. It'll be impossible to get a job without a degree. I know we're not the only people who started to think that way, but I believe that because of the resulting rush to University, the value of a degree is diminishing.

Most of the job postings I've seen require secondary education for a position that pays, the lowest I've seen- but I've seen it often, $9.00 an hour. If I would have picked my position back up at the retail store I was seasonal at during the past few years, I'd be making more than that.

Granted, in a real position my ability to grow and earn more could move a lot quicker than it would if I was back at a corporate retail outlet (where you're considered for a raise only once a year and management positions are hard to come by.) Regardless, it still really pulls the rug out from under me to realize how incredibly financially limited I am right now- especially when the ability to earn more was one of my main reasons for getting a secondary education (beyond my passion to learn :-p).

Between my job search and my apartment hunt in Broward County, where there's quite the range of socio-economic communities, I've realized that I can't live- where living means rent, food, gas, utilities, internet, student loans, and credit card bills from four years of flying to Florida for Thanksgiving and a semester abroad- for less than $13.00 an hour when working 40 hours a week. That would get me by by the skin of my teeth, and excludes luxuries like my summer movie addiction, my passion for traveling, and my obsession with accessories. Or, you know, saving up for that graduate degree that I eventually want to go back for.

I knew this was coming, but my current inability to find a job that pays less than I need to survive is making it incredibly difficult for me to focus on a future of being able to afford life.

This article was featured on MSN today and, though it's really radical, I think it poses some really interesting ideas about the secondary education system. (And the discussion at the end helps to explicate the points Hough misses.) Definitely worth a read.

I'll go back to my different forms of entertainment for now, but my endeavors continue tomorrow.

P.S. Get your vote on to my right! A poll isn't much of a poll if nobody responds.