126 Comments Add your own

• 1. Michelle  |  September 13th, 2011 at 11:33 pm

  I love luxurious chores, too! Crazy how parenthood changes our outlook on things.

• 2. Jennie  |  September 13th, 2011 at 11:44 pm

  Mike and I don’t believe you’ve been cleaning your car. We love you but you lie.

  I KID. I KID.

  (Kinda.)

  You KNOW how I feel about the first half of your post. I just now wrote endless amounts of paragraphs with those thoughts and then deleted them all but, basically, f I ever value a degree for Kyle over being like his father, slap me square in the face, ok?

• 3. LizScott  |  September 13th, 2011 at 11:45 pm

  I had an interesting conversation with a friend of a friend who worked for the BBC and was heading back to the UK after a few years of being stationed in the US (is stationed the right word? Whatever: he was here, and then he was going back.) Because I am a cliched asshole, I asked him what the biggest difference between here and there was for him, and his response was along the lines of what you’re saying: Americans don’t value blue collar work, and as such treat blue collar workers as “less”, and it’s evolving into an uneducated masses mentality, whereas in the UK, everyone, regardless of profession is expected to be educated on the issues of the day, have opinions about politics and the economy and all that stuff.

  I paraphrasing his point, but I remember that conversation, and when I link it into ANOTHER conversation I had with a friend who works in tech start up, the jist of which was basically that as a culture we value super duper “soft” higher education that over and above education that actually makes shit (MBA vs engineering, for example. Or history degrees vs. plumbers, and you know who I want with me in the apocalypse? The g-d plumber, cause at least he has a fighting changes or macguyvering his way through the wilds whereas I – with my theoretica statistics degree – could mostly just give you our odds for survival) and is, to put it plainly, kind of going to fuck us in the long run.

  So anyway, yes: I think we’ve gotten a place where we think “higher education = better career/money” without actually thinking about value its adding/we’re adding

• 4. PinkieBling  |  September 14th, 2011 at 12:29 am

  TEDDY BEARS AND CLAMS. Oh, I die. That should probably be at least an album name, if not a band.

  I’m so with you on the trades. I agree with everything you said. I *just* became unemployed, and I have a backgroun in web development and marketing. So…maybe I’ll take this unforeseen opportunity to train as an electrician?

• 5. Blythe  |  September 14th, 2011 at 12:41 am

  I crave alone time in my own house. Even now that my child is older and can entertain himself for a while, I don’t feel like I can do all of the project-y stuff around the house until I’m by myself. When I’m home alone, I do stuff like clean out the pantry. PARTY ON.

• 6. Melissa H  |  September 14th, 2011 at 12:47 am

  Yeah, trades are where it’s at these days. Can’t offshore a plumber. My hubby is a teacher and loves it and does well but he does carpentry on the side and could have a really good business if he wanted to do that full time (teacher health benefits/retirement and actual love of teaching keep him from that path) His best friend from high school is an electrician and owns his own business and seems to be doing just fine moneywise

  Glad to hear Sam is loving preschool and you are loving the time to yourself. Although I cannot fathom using that time to scrub baseboards but to each their own.

• 7. Manda  |  September 14th, 2011 at 12:54 am

  YES! The “what happened at preschool today?” answers. OH MY LANTA! And you know what? I really WANTED to know what happened when I discovered that my child was running around the playground in only her underpants and had – as a fun “free time!” activity – PAINTED ANOTHER CHILD BLUE. HEAD TO TOE.
  And yes, if you need me I’ll be cleaning and grocery shopping. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME.
  Ahem.
  Sorry about all them caps lock-y words.

• 8. Jessica  |  September 14th, 2011 at 12:55 am

  I like to ask my 2yo what she had for lunch at daycare. She thinks about it then pulls random foods out of thin air. They list the menu on her little summary sheet, so I know what she ate and it’s never what she says.

• 9. Jenna  |  September 14th, 2011 at 7:03 am

  You can steam clean your bathroom floors? I’ve never heard of such a thing!

  I am digging the luxurious chores right now. Especially now that I don’t have to spend the entire two and half hours of preschool in a sniffling daze, wondering if mah babee is still clinging to the door frame, crying for me.

  We have a great game of Preschool Telephone happening here, wherein E tells me what she did at preschool and later I try to relay that to my husband in front of E.
  Me: “There was a song about a … silly duck? And they drew an …. astronaut? Or maybe an octopus???”
  E: “SHOES!”

• 10. Jen  |  September 14th, 2011 at 7:18 am

  Oh man I miss playing the music loud. And we don’t have a car anymore so I don’t even have drive time music anymore. Sob. So play it a little louder on my behalf OK?

• 11. Kristina  |  September 14th, 2011 at 8:09 am

  THANK YOU. Thank you for saying this. My husband is super smart, but super smart but school just wasn’t for him. He couldn’t learn in that environment, and some people just can’t. He went to college for two years and was offered a job as an electrical lineman. I don’t want to over-share here, but to be honest, where we live he makes over six figures and I get SO TIRED of all our “super-educated” friends/acquaintances giving us the pity eye whenever the topic of works comes up. I think they assume he makes very little money. And it’s not even that I CARE what they think, I just think some people have no appreciation for how hard blue-collar workers work – he earns every cent he makes. His job is DANGEROUS, it took three years of an apprenticeship to learn it , he works his ass off when it’s 100 degrees and when it’s 15 degrees and he is good at it and it is providing a wonderful life for our family so I really just want to tell them to suck it and stop judging us.

  Whew. Apparently I have very strong feelings about this. Anyway, I agree – I want my kids to be happy and able to create whatever kind of life they want for themselves and that’s all. My expensive education sure isn’t making me $125 an hour!!

• 12. Ris  |  September 14th, 2011 at 8:37 am

  Ah yes, the luxurious chore. I spent a lot of time on luxurious chores while I was unemployed. D would come home and asked what I did all day and it would be things like “re-organized the bathroom cabinets!” and “sorted our bookshelves by color!” Made me sound a little crazypants but damn was our house in order. Now that I’m working again…not so much.

• 13. heidi  |  September 14th, 2011 at 8:40 am

  I’m with you on everything but the baseboard thing. I keep telling my boys I want one of them to be a plumber, one a carpenter, an electrician, and a mechanic. They can chose which one. The last will have to do what the others didn’t want to. Right now it’s not looking good though. I’ve got two in AP classes that do not translate to working with one’s hands. My oldest is thinking about majoring in ENGLISH. What the hell good is that I ask?

  Kidding. Whatever they want to do as long as they work at it and do it well.

• 14. jonniker  |  September 14th, 2011 at 9:02 am

  Liz & Kristina, you both made a point I meant to make, which is that tradesmen and women are capable of being smart and well informed, and the opposite is a stereotype that is SO PERVASIVE, it makes me angry. My hairdresser made the point that when she was in high school, she wanted to go into hairdressing, but her guidance counselor told her she was “too smart for that,” so she forced herself to go through two years of expensive fancypants college — of the private, highbrow liberal arts variety, I hasten to add — only to drop out and become a hairdresser anyway.

  Since when are hairdressers dumb? You think it DOESN’T take brains to be a plumber or a roofer or a carpenter or a lineman? My hairdresser is smart and well read and well informed — in many cases, more so than *I* am, with my fancy degree — and … uh, that should be obvious to many, but it isn’t.

• 15. H  |  September 14th, 2011 at 9:08 am

  I did the same thing when my youngest left for college! When I finished cleaning my toaster with a Magic Eraser, I realized I’d gone a bit too far.

  As for college and trades, I absolutely agree with you. I actually have too much to say about it so I won’t say it here, but I will say I loathe people who judge. Period.

• 16. Cherie Beyond  |  September 14th, 2011 at 9:11 am

  As the wife of a (very smart, very talented) carpenter, I think you can just keep singing that tune all damn day long. It makes me laugh when people ask what we do, because describing my job takes about three jargon-laden paragraphs while he just looks at them and says, “I build stuff.”

  In a not so coincidental coincidence (because this is a conversation that’s filtering into the national consciousness all over), my local paper had a story about this very thing JUST TODAY: http://bangordailynews.com/2011/09/13/business/live-in-maine-need-a-job-develop-these-skills/

• 17. Kris Taylor  |  September 14th, 2011 at 9:34 am

  My husband is English. Going through school, he wasn’t what we would call “book smart” When he took his exams at 15 he got 1 O level (good score ) in technical drawing.He decided not to continue his education as good livingfamily couldn’t afford it. His mother got him an apprenticeship at the Ferrari dealership in the town they lived in. That was 40 years ago and he is one of the most respected and knowledgeable Ferrari technicians around. In England he is known as a master technician. He moved here 10 years ago, and unless he drops the Ferrari name (which he never does) people just say “oh you’re a mechanic” He hates that. He is very specialized and makes a very good living, and yet, here in this country, he is JUST a mechanic….

• 18. Kristina  |  September 14th, 2011 at 10:16 am

  Geez, apparently I was really worked up, as evidenced by the multitude of errors in that comment!

  I’ll admit it, my husband is MUCH smarter than I am. And I hate that he gets written off because he doesn’t have a degree. There is more than one way to educate yourself and I wish people could appreciate that. I can guarantee that my “Mythology in Greek Literature” class isn’t really doing much for me these days.

• 19. melaniek  |  September 14th, 2011 at 10:20 am

  my daughter just started preschool (2 mornings a week) and when I asked her what her favorite part was yesterday she said “snack, it was fishes AND grapes” how many flipping times have I given her grapes or goldfish crackers for snack, yet at preschool its apparently the most magical part of her day (but I guess since I rarely give her BOTH at the same time I have been holding out on her)

• 20. Kate  |  September 14th, 2011 at 10:25 am

  Amen re: education and degrees. And I say that as someone with THREE post high-school degrees. Ridiculous. Related: I am barely making enough to pay for daycare each month.

  Moving on.

  Sam gives far better reports than Jacob gives on the content of the school day. “How was school?” “Dood.” (That’s “good,” for the uninformed.) “What did you do at school?”

  That was a great post. I miss you… Can I bring my car to your house someday soon?

• 21. Lisa  |  September 14th, 2011 at 11:23 am

  I read. . .somewhere. . .that the “trades” are going to be begging for qualified people within the next 10 years, since high school graduates, like you said, are being pushed into college when sometimes there’s no reason for it.

  I have a good friend whose son will graduate this year, and he’s already lined up an apprenticeship with an electrician. He’s going to take a few classes, for his apprenticeship, at the local community college, but that’s it. He’s very good with his hands, and doesn’t like school, so she figured why make him go? He’ll probably make more money than all of us by the time he’s 25.

  (My husband does commercial heat and air, and makes more than I do, what with my fancy college degree from a private university.)

• 22. Jessica  |  September 14th, 2011 at 11:31 am

  Haha, when I get home from work, and Paul asks me how my day went, may I PLEASE quote Sam?

• 23. -Jen  |  September 14th, 2011 at 12:08 pm

  A lot of people are offended when I, a faculty member at a university, tell some high school students to forgo or wait to go to college. It’s not for everyone, and pretending that it is just sets some people up to feel like failures.

• 24. Josefina  |  September 14th, 2011 at 12:58 pm

  YES! YES! Cheering out loud for the first part of this post! My younger son has already indicated (at age that he has no interest in a university and that he wants to be musician. Fine. We’ll see if he changes his mind, but as for his plan, he’s already well on his way, he has the talent and the interest…why not? We told him he has to go to SOME kind of school, though, presumably a music school. I’m thinking it’s going to be a challenge to get in and to finish, and if anyone EVER looks down the nose at him I WILL USE MY PUNCHING FIST. Not really, but grrrrr.

  Second part, awesome. So happy Sam is enjoying school, and you are enjoying all THAT. This is good stuff!

• 25. Halyn  |  September 14th, 2011 at 12:58 pm

  Lisa, re your first paragraph, it’s already happening. My last job was as a Dispatcher/Client Relations Agent at an appliance repair company. Despite a very good wage and benefit program, we were desperate for technicians. A very large part of every workday was spent with Clients screaming (YES, SCREAMING) at me that there was no way in hell they were waiting three days for a repairman, I better get one out NOW. I sympathize, ’cause it’s a bitch to run a kitchen with no fridge, but I would tell them, “sorry, I have three techs and 300 square miles of appliances to service. A tech can only do 8-10 calls a day because Seattle traffic sucks so bad. I have 90 calls queued in front of you. You do the math.” Then the client would tell me that we should hire more techs. ORLY? Is that all we have to do? Any kid in a modern high school who says he wants to go to VoTech for appliance repair gets pushed to go to a “real college” instead. The job has no glory, no prestige, and no takers, despite the ability to make a pretty good living.

• 26. Sara C.  |  September 14th, 2011 at 1:06 pm

  I have been thinking about this issue a lot lately. Although, I’m not sure if I am articulating it as well as you have. For me, it’s a new concept to consider because I have always been surrounded by persons who consider an undergraduate degree to be the minimum level of education that should be completed. However, I completely agree with what has been said above about the value of tradesmen (and women!). I’ll admit that I in the past I have been guilty of thinking similar negative thoughts to those articulate above about people who choose these trades over more “educated professions,” but I am consciously striving to make an effort to overcome this bias and I hope that others in our society will do the same. I wish our country would a system more like the education system in England (my husband is English) where not everyone is pushed into going to college, but instead evaluated for skills that they actually possess – although in order for this to work we pretty much need a complete overhaul of the current system (and can we throw in national healthcare too while we’re at it?)

• 27. Gaby  |  September 14th, 2011 at 1:07 pm

  First, LizScott? This “whereas I – with my theoretica statistics degree – could mostly just give you our odds for survival” nearly made me choke on my lunch. Well played.

  Jonna, I totally, totally agree with you on how college isn’t for everyone, and it’s taken marrying my husband to really bring that to light for me. Not because I was some sort of snob about education before, but because I had bought into the line that the only way up was through education. So, I took the education path, putting myself through undergrad and grad school, to come out the other side with two bachelors degrees and a masters. In English and psychology. Super useful. But I was always a lover of school, so I didn’t mind the process.

  My husband, on the other hand, hated school. Only went to a two-year college because his parents insisted on it. He earned an associates in mechanical and electrical systems. He works as an electrician at a wastewater treatment plant and earns more than I do. Not only that, but he doesn’t owe a kabillion dollars on a degree he didn’t want in the first place AND he actually accomplishes something each day. I envy the fact that he can see what he’s done in his 8 hours, whereas I can merely consider that I made some edit to a web page no one looks at. Woot.

  Rambling to say that his brilliance with electricity amazes me, and I can only hope that our son will be equally able at whatever he is inclined to do with his life, and if that means forgoing a degree? Fine by me.

• 28. Karen  |  September 14th, 2011 at 1:35 pm

  You might be interested in a book called The Mind at Work by Mike Rose. Full disclosure, he’s an old colleague and friend of mine, but the book is fabulous. He really wrote it as a tribute to his mother, who was a career waitress. He wanted to illuminate the very complicated thinking that it takes to work with your hands. He has a chapter on hairdressers (and in fact he interviewed my hairdresser while I sat in her chair for a cut, which makes me kind of famous I think). It’s a great book that I think really does justice to this topic.

  http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Work-Valuing-Intelligence-American/dp/0670032824

• 29. Jen  |  September 14th, 2011 at 3:20 pm

  I love nothing more lately than having a few hours at home alone to ORGANIZE AND CLEAN ALL THE THINGS. I have fallen so far.

  And agreed with everything in those first few paragraphs. Applause.

• 30. Christen  |  September 14th, 2011 at 3:44 pm

  Oh man, do I have some feeeeellliinnnggss about the first part of your post. Basically: yes to everything you said. I come from a blue-collar family: my grandpa was a sheet metal worker (built ships at Pearl Harbor during WWII holla!), my stepdad put himself through school as a janitor/custodian at one point, another grandpa was a barber, my husband put himself through college as a cook at a truck stop, etc. My maternal grandparents didn’t finish school beyond jr high, and yet they valued self-improvement and were each very intellectually curious without needing a professor to teach them.

  When I was in college I worked at Target for awhile; the hours were flexible and it wasn’t so demanding that it took away from my studies. I didn’t LOVE it, but whatever – I was taking care of business. My then-boyfriend, an unemployed Princeton grad, told me he was embarrassed to tell his “brilliant” father that I was a.) attending a state school and b.) working as a cashier. But apparently he wasn’t embarrassed to let his parents pay his bills.

  My parents instilled this message: honest work is honest work, no matter how menial or unimportant it may appear. I am not “better” than someone else because I went to college, nor is their life/work experience any less valuable. And yet, my parents REALLY wanted me to finish college because they had experienced being held back (or passed over) due to a lack of a diploma.

  And seriously? Where the hell would we be without our stylists? That client who demeaned someone HELPING HER is clearly the idiot. HER parents must be ashamed.

• 31. K  |  September 14th, 2011 at 3:45 pm

  I want my children to be happy, confident, KIND, intentional, hard-working individuals.

  If they are these things while becoming the most Educated of the Educated–that’s cool. If they are these things while charging an arm and a leg as skilled laborers/journeymen (…people?)–that’s cool, too.

• 32. craftyashley  |  September 14th, 2011 at 6:09 pm

  “Luxurious chores.” You kill me!

• 33. Sarah  |  September 14th, 2011 at 7:31 pm

  Hubby and I do not have college degrees. Hubby’s parents paid for him to GO to college, but he left without finishing (grrr, he has TWO credits left and it was 15 years ago). I only managed to get through sophomore year before the money ran out and I found better things to do with my time, like support myself and find health insurance.

  While we are certainly not the most well off people and would love to make more money (who wouldn’t?), a degree wasn’t going to magically make that happen for us. It would have come in handy for me when I was told point blank I could have some a prestigious job if I had a degree but whatever, we managed and are both employed. I am surrounded by PhDs at work and no one knows about my lack of degree unless I tell them.

  For what it’s worth, my brother the electrician and his wife the part time hairdresser smoke us in the earnings category. My other brother has gone back to school and is supported by his wife, the teacher, the only one of us with an advanced degree.

  When the time comes for our boy to decide what to do with his life, I hope he chooses well and that it is something that will make him a solid living. Not some pipe dream that flames out and leaves him holding the bag (ie crazy school loans, SBA loan, etc).

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• 35. JMH  |  September 15th, 2011 at 5:45 am

  I was at a teacher inservice training recently, and research shows that Blue collar jobs require a HIGHER reading level than White collar jobs. Most of the manuals they are required to read for their jobs are written at a higher reading level than most college literature courses.

• 36. SwingCheese  |  September 15th, 2011 at 9:36 am

  Agreed, a thousand times, about the first part of your post!! The way that hourly professions are perceived blows my mind! My husband decided on nursing and now works as an LPN. He administers medicine, evaluates injuries, and basically is on the front line for the people he takes care of. If he doesn’t do his job properly (or if he were too stupid to do his job properly), PEOPLE COULD DIE. And still, he’s looked down on by some, as he is “just a nurse” (and a male one at that). Drives me insane.

  I come from a long line of blue collars. On one side of my family, I was the only grandchild to go to college, on the other, I’m one of two (out of 21) to have an advanced degree. I’ve been watching boyo, and he’s very interested in how things work, how they are put together, etc. He doesn’t like to sit still much. (Granted, he’s 2 1/2, so there’s that.) I plan to help him decide where his strengths are, and letting him go from there. As long as he can support himself/his family well, is happy, and can think critically about the events of the day, I’ll be happy with whatever he does. But if he were to become, say, a mechanic or something, I would expect a family discount

• 37. Sarah  |  September 15th, 2011 at 12:30 pm

  I grew up in one of the richest counties in the US (Marin County, CA) and while my dad was an international banker, our next door neighbor was a plumber. They had a 4,000 sf house, drove BMWs and his wife stayed at home. And they were able to retire at 65 and put their kids through college. I had NO IDEA some tradespeople made so much money but living next door to them really brought home the fact that you needn’t report to an office every day to live a very very financially lucrative life.

• 38. Lawyerish  |  September 15th, 2011 at 12:38 pm

  I think our plumber makes easily $300 an hour. THREE HUNDRED AN HOUR. I am in awe of skilled tradespeople, because in my household we are hopeless about carpentry/plumbing/electricity/any kind of maintenance issues whatsoever. I would pay even MORE than $300 an hour for a plumber, because I haven’t a clue, let alone the equipment, to do what they do.

• 39. Sarah  |  September 15th, 2011 at 12:52 pm

  I should also add that I was considered the “smart one” in my family and was shipped off to college only to get a completely useless undergraduate degree in linguistics and then an MBA in international marketing. I now stay at home with my son (and soon-to-be-born twin daughters) and make no money at all. My brother, meanwhile, never did well in traditional school (though is whip smart in many ways) and went on to trade school to get degrees in navigation and marine mechanical engineering and is now a first mate with the Alaska ferry system. He is happy, a home owner and made more money straight out of school than I did as a Product Manager at a Fortune 50 company after getting my MBA.

  In my opinion, if you can hack it (and so many of us “smarties” really wouldn’t be able to!) trade school is the way to go!

• 40. Olivia  |  September 15th, 2011 at 1:42 pm

  Amen to the first part. I don’t care what my children do after high school, as long as the do something. Every time I higher a plumber I ask myself why I didn’t go into that trade. (answer: all the poo)

  Also, amen to the second part. I work out of the home full time, and I daydream about having enough time to do things like clean my car and get rid of all the cobwebs in the corners of my house.

• 41. Deb  |  September 15th, 2011 at 2:45 pm

  We don’t have enough respect for the trades in this country. Carpenters, electricians, plumbers, mechanics, etc are HIGHLY SKILLED and knowledgable and had the good sense to become that way without spending a bunch of time taking English 101 and Public Speaking in college.

  Once I got a bill from a doctor for some outrageous amount, and I said to my husband, “who does this guy think he is – a plumber?”

• 42. TwoBusy  |  September 15th, 2011 at 4:27 pm

  You make a lot of really strong, salient points here, but…

  Washing your baseboards?

• 43. Julie  |  September 15th, 2011 at 5:13 pm

  I was appalled when my mother suggested (prior to our wedding) that my husband couldn’t be on the same level as me in the intelligence area because he didn’t have a college degree. She made the assumption that degree=intelligence which I have learned does not. My first husband had a degree and was (still is I am assuming) dumber than a box of rocks. I am much closer to equal in the brains department with my degree-less cop husband than I ever was with the ex. At times, I believe hubby far outweighs me in this area.

• 44. NGS  |  September 15th, 2011 at 7:10 pm

  Only 39% of Americans have bachelor’s degrees. And I’m pretty sure those who don’t have them are doing just fine.

  As someone who has taught college classes, there are some kids who are destined for something far greater than college and they those students deserve the opportunity to do those things. Snobbiness based educational status pisses me off, too!!

• 45. Amy  |  September 15th, 2011 at 9:05 pm

  Oh lordy do I hear you singing on the college education front. Recently my husband informed me that in order to fully fund our (now just 2.25 years old) daughter’s education we will need to save $500, 000. Let me just repeat that in case you thought you just blacked out or had a seizure. Five. Hundred. THOUSAND. Dollars. DOLLARS. To which I absolutely assumed he was going to follow with a) and so I’ve been thinking, actually becoming a hair dresser/plumber/alligator wrangler may not a bad idea really or b) and so yeah, state school, looking better and better every day.

  Oh but no. He did not. Instead he pummeled me with the IMPORTANCE (fist shake!!) of THE RIGHT EDUCATION (read: filthy with Ivy) and OH MY GOD HOW COULD YOU WITHOLD THAT FROM HER? (Because you know, I totally HAVE $500,000. Just sitting around. But I won’t give it to her. For college. Because of my bottomless addiction to QVC. Or whatever)

  And I just don’t agree. I just don’t. We may NEVER see the ass-end of $500,000 in our lives but my god if we did let me tell you I hope it involves a house near an OCEAN or at the very least a mother fracking YACHT. I don’t feel we are obligated to pay for her presumably Ivy League education but moreover I don’t believe she is obligated to even GO to college. Even still, if she doesn’t really want to go to college MOTHER OF GOD if I’m shelling out $500 k’s for her to just to be drunk and insufferable. Especially if she can just do that shizz for FREE.

• 46. Amy  |  September 15th, 2011 at 9:10 pm

  Oh, and I just wanted to say that I DID go to College. Lots and lots of college. And I was lucky enough to love what I went to school for and it’s afforded me what is, essentially a trade, and one that I will always be able to use. So I’m thankkful for that. Everyday. And I paid my own way and still have the loans to show for it. But I just don’t think someone who doesn’t have a professional vision to which college is necessary (e.g. law school or medical school or education, etc) then just going to go (or worse, feeling like you had to go or if you didn’t go you’d be some huge failure) and doing little else than getting shit faced and ripping up thousand dollar bills is phenomenally idiotic and elitist.

• 47. Lippy  |  September 17th, 2011 at 11:21 am

  I teach high school, and it kills me how many kids think they must go to college or they will live on the street. My brother works with computers for an engineering firm and makes way more money than me. There are a ton of great jobs, that are important to society, that don’t require college. I should print this post and the comments out to give to my students.

• 48. Alayna  |  September 17th, 2011 at 2:49 pm

  I cannot thank you enough for voicing your encouragement of higher education in the um, non-traditional forms! I, too, went to college for a year (psych major) and decided that although I DO want to help people feel better about themselves, I can do it in another way. So after that first year I went to beauty school and became a licensed aesthetician. I’ll admit, I was embarrassed for a long time. I totally felt like people looked at me and said, “Aww, she couldn’t handle REAL college! I’m sure her parents are proud.” But the feelings that come along with relaxing people and helping them feel good about themselves is unimaginable. The best compliment I have ever received came right after I had finished a facial on a woman in her thirties who was six months pregnant and planning her first child. With tears in her eyes she looked at me and said, “You relaxed me enough that I could feel my baby move. For the first time in six weeks. Thank you.” So worth it.

• 49. Elsha  |  September 17th, 2011 at 9:51 pm

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