OK so it happened about 18 years ago, but dam it, it will not go away!
12/02/2003
We are talking about my college experience. I went to a small university on the East Coast, close to home and never lived in a dorm. The school was so small then, they didn’t have dorms. I did fine my first 2 years of school and managed to get decent grades then things changed.
My folks were just coming out of a nasty divorce, my mom was dating some guy she thought she would marry and I was plugging along. I was working in a factory that makes the tops for spry cans. You know them, you use them every day. Well someone had to make the dam things and that was my little job at the time. I worked the overnight shift, in at 11:00 p.m. and got off at 7:00 a.m. I could use the time in-between checking the machines to read my homework. They assigned me 10 machines that didn’t require much attention. I was the “college kid” that was trying to make it in the world. The other employees were great; they helped me along and let me slide occasionally. They understood how important this dam degree was going to be. No more factory work.
Well, mom and husband to be decided he had to take a better job in a different state. Well up goes the house for sale. I end up scrambling to find a place to live. I found a studio apartment, not in the best neighborhood, but not in a bad place either. Along with the apartment comes the responsibility of rent. Well some where in that transition, I got lost in the parental shuffle. I end up changing jobs so I can make a little more money for the rent and bills. I adjust my school schedule to nights so I can just get this done. Well somehow the parental payments for school stop. It Just Stopped. At that time, you had to attend college full time to get any financial aid; I was fresh out of my parent’s house so I didn’t qualify for grants. My folks made to much money and I got screwed. I tried to continue for 2 more semesters. I managed to do ok on the first, but during the 2nd, I ended up falling asleep in my advanced history classes. I couldn’t work 40 hours a week and keep up the classes, reading and papers. I was plane old exhausted.
I managed to complete 57 hours of courses. Then reality hit. I just couldn’t do both. I went ahead and joined the workers of the world.
Well, now I have to explain this little fact to each and every human resources person in the world. No see on my resume it says I attend University, it doesn’t say I graduated. I couldn’t get the funding to graduate. I got the bad parent card that time. I moved on, I have 20 years of bookkeeping experience. No I didn’t get a degree. “Why didn’t you finish your degree later?” Oh I looked into it back in 98 and decided that it was a better investment for me to purchase a house than for me to go into debt for a college degree. For some reason, a lot of the HR types just don’t get this. The math is simple.
Finish education: 37K in debt with a part time job eating Ramon noodles.
Purchase house: Down payment on my future. Have a place to live and eventually have some rental income.
It sounded so simple to me then, it still makes sense to me now. Just try to explain that to the HR person on the other end of the phone!
Oh, buy the way, mom didn't marry Mr. husband to be. She cancelled the wedding, cancelled the contract on the house sale but I was locked into a lease. Plus, I didn’t want to go back to Mom’s house after all of that. Choice, they were just choices I made.
