I've hit my early life crisis

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Don Nguyen

Joined
Oct 4, 2011
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I'm in my first semester of University, but this is my 4th year considering community college (after flip flops and major changes). I'm doing the Materials Science and Engineering major, and I'm not going to pass at least one of the 4 classes. I'm behind in credits - it'll probably take me 4 years to finish. Total of seven years for an undergraduate degree.

I'm now considering if college is the right path for me. I already know that I'm going to try full-time knifemaking after I graduate; I've been wanting to do that for a while now. I'm mostly getting this degree for my parents, who are strict traditional Asian parents. However, it's a huge sum of money here, and many years of my early life that won't even go directly to an immediate job. Not to mention, knifemaking isn't exactly known for being a big money-maker.

To clarify, I'm not dead set on making knifemaking my whole life career, but I am dead set on trying it when the time allows me to do so. The possibilities are open; I might not even like it when I try full-time. so who knows.


Basically, I'm getting this degree for my parents as a back-up in case knifemaking or whatever else doesn't work, which could be the case. The argument is time and money, versus rewards. However, even with the degree, it might not even bring any job stability - most students are looking to guarantee a job during their later years before graduation, and in my case I'm looking to start a business and letting the degree sit around.

I've thought about if I try knife-making now and it doesn't work, going back to college. But my parents argue that it's extremely difficult to get back into school once I've started working full-time.


It's also a case of indecisiveness and fear. I've spent 4 years flopping back and forth with no direction, and still have none. I'm fearing failure, unknowns, disappointment, stagnation, regret, everything. I don't know where my mind is at right now, so this is probably a jumbled mess of complaining and whining. Just had to release some thoughts somewhere... I just feel like a ****up, because I practically wasted this semester being stupid at the beginning - $6000 about for just this semester, and most of it is down the drain.

I feel like I would be able to finish this degree, it's just I only got the motivation kick too late, when classes had already begun rolling and I was falling way behind. I'm at a crossroad where I decide college or not now, and I'm just lost.
 
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You can't quantify the value of a degree. If you don't stick with it now you will likely regret it in the future.
 
Conversely, in today's economy, many graduates, older and recent, are sitting on their degrees. No one can see the future, yours or the econemy's. And no one can make the choice for you.
 
Buck up camper... The class you are failing or likely to fail. GO TO THE PROF. Explain the situation and say, "I'm going to take a grade hit in all of my other classes to pass yours. We have XX weeks/days or hours to pass your final exam. Now, how are we going to accomplish that?"

Then, the hard part, is that you are going to have to work your butt off to cram the semester worth of learning into that period of time. When the student fails, the prof fails. When the student quits and fails, then that's not the prof's problem. You have to make this the key issue. No professor wants to see his students fail, but if you look like you don't give a rats behind, then it's all to easy to fail the student and be able to very easily defend that action should something come up later.
 
Basically, I'm getting this degree for my parents as a back-up in case knifemaking or whatever else doesn't work, which could be the case.
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If you don't get the degree, then you have no backup. The riskiness of having no backup depends on two things: A) the reliability of the thing that would be backed up, and B) the consequences of its failure.

In this case, making a career out of professional custom knife making is risky indeed. Many try and few succeed. And the consequences of having your plan for how you will making a living for the rest of your life fail is huge.

Conclusion: you need the backup. Finish your degree.

I've thought about if I try knife-making now and it doesn't work, going back to college. But my parents argue that it's extremely difficult to get back into school once I've started working full-time.
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Your parents are 100% correct. Finish your degree first.
 
Thanks everyone.

I was pretty worked up this morning, but my mind has cleared up a bit now. I know for sure that I'll regret not finishing a degree, so I'll keep powering through.

It sure is tough.
 
If you are spending your money and years of your life in post secondary schooling to satisfy your parents you are on the wrong path. I went through something similar to this back in the 1970's. After finishing my B.A I dumped university and settled for the trades and did well. I went both to university and work at the same time, and felt that I was not doing the degree for myself but to satisfy my parents. I thought long and hard at the choices; Either start working, pay into my pensions and start paying down the mortage on my first home. Or pay rent, run up depts to pay for tuition and waste my best working years sitting around in a dusty classroom studying stuff that I had no interest in, with absolutely no guarrantee of finding a job in that field afterwards.

I was not an academic but rather a person who likes to work with ones hands. The trades were for me, I worked building maintenance and later became a stationary engineer working with heating and airconditioning. It was a great job, everyday had its challenges. The pay was good and so were the bennefits including the retirement package. I had to take early retirement due to a chronic health condition- Chrons. Had I not had a good job with bennefits I would be up the financial creek today without a paddle.

Go with your gut and make the decision. I was not happy or satified with ongoing schooling, so I moved on with my life with no regrets. Trades persons will be in short supply, opening up a good job market in the future as more retire in the years to come.
 
It's always good to have a backup profession and always good to have formal training for some of that [not necessarily college]
 
I was in your same boat.. I kept my head down and graduated with a bachelors degree. You'll never regret finishing school.
 
Edit: tl;dr: Exactly what Bufford said above :thumbup:

A few years ago, I dropped out of university with a 4.0 GPA and only 20 hours to go on my BA. My job now is the same as it would've been had I finished, except I didn't accrue any significant debt. For certain disciplines, I can tell you firsthand that a post-highschool education is unnecessary and even sometimes a hindrance. Of course, for others, it is absolutely essential. If I could do it all over again, I would choose a trade school over a college or university, so that the other skills I want (that aren't already able to be successfully cultivated on my own time, i.e. drawing/writing/web design) could be more readily learned.

If your degree is only "for your parents," it is a waste of time. For that piece of paper to really be worth anything, you need to be all in for yourself first. College is an expensive investment, and it absolutely isn't for everyone. My fiancee has $18,000 of college debt, an A-average BA from a prestigious university, and simply cannot find gainful employment. My best friend has $40,000 in college debt and has the same job now -- three years after graduating -- that he had while going to school. There has never been a better time, financially-speaking, to change course provided that's what you really want to do.

You may not regret finishing your degree, but -- if your position is anything like mine was -- you likely won't regret backing away from one, either.
 
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Don Nguyen said:
Thanks everyone.

I was pretty worked up this morning, but my mind has cleared up a bit now. I know for sure that I'll regret not finishing a degree, so I'll keep powering through.

It sure is tough.
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If college was easy, everyone would be running around with degrees. The problem I encountered was the lack of work in my field in this state. I am currently the only employee in my department with an undergrad degree, I'm proud as heck about it. When I was a student, I worked full time and went to class full time. It was very stressful, no doubt about it. I love some student loans too. ;)
 
Get the degree. Even if you never work in the exact field (which I never did) the degree is an access card into areas you will never have without the degree. Many jobs require a degree and if you don't have it, your resume goes into the trash can. Even if you make knives in the future, you might eventually run your own business, in which case the degree should help.

If you want to talk money, my wife has an accounting degree and 10 years of experience, plus 10 years of experience in Oracle Financials and just got a $40 an hour raise. As in, she was already making well over $150,000 a year and got a $40/hour raise on top of that, for a $230,000+ profit sharing yearly rate. I'm "only" making a bit over $120k with my degree and experience but my position has all of the insurance and other benefits that her job doesn't since she is a straight hourly consultant.

You will never make that kind of money without either a degree or heavy experience in whatever the latest hot programming language is at the time.
 
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Get your degree. Your older mid-life crisis will go much better if you have options.
 
My daughter has a degree ( that I paid for) and has never been employed in that field. I still don't regret the tens of thousands that I put into her degree as I think that reaching knowledge based goals can't always be quantified in terms of employment and quality of life. My biggest regret is that I didn't figure this out until I was fifty.
 
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