Biggest DIfference Between Going to College and Having a Job

paying3tuitions
Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:34:04 +0000

I greatly admire my BIL who finally got to college at age 50. He is brilliant, reads a lot, but also suffered from dyslexia before it had a name (in his city, anyway). School was a nightmare for him. His older 4 brothers all got advanced degrees. Forunately, they knew he was just as smart as they were, and nobody ever put him down for it.

He married a h.s. sweetheart and nurse. They have two lovely daughters, now in college. Money was always tight for them. Now, they all do their homework together. Meanwhile, he has 3 jobs including as a custodian, pizza man. ONe evening he even worked with his D as the boss.

What I noticed is how much better he thinks and writes now that he’s actually in college. He used to read a book and argue points from it, but without comparing or contrasting any ideas. Now, because of the training of college work, he stays with his point as he debates an idea from the book with the brothers. When he writes a simple email of family news, the logic hangs together and the wording is beautiful.

It is very hard for him because he has a mortgage, college tuitions to pay for his girls, night jobs…and yet he felt it crucial to get that college degree. Sometimes he has to be polite, for example, when his history professor teaches about the Nixon years and makes an error about Watergate, he knows it because he lived right through those times. Although he’s a friendly guy, there’s no chance he’ll make friends with classmates in their early 20’s. He had to get them to stop calling him “Sir.”

I think he’d be the first to tell anybody: life is “easiest” by FAR if you get your college degree when you are on the younger side of life. Getting it much later is always possible, but life is MUCH harder that way.