Sorry @theaterwork and @hopecladwell, I clearly did not choose my words carefully enough. I never intended to disparage anyone or any line of work. The two firemen I am speaking of did not get a college education, they made other choices right out of high school and they are sitting pretty now. In the end they came out ahead of my husband financially and probably time-wise too. By those measures, they could be considered more successful than my husband who paid his way through college earning a bachelors degree in English and now his pay is stagnant and his hours stink and the future of his industry looks bleak. Some would say he made a bad choice because look where he is today. But I would say he followed his dream and did the best he could with it and his college education wasn’t wasted or less valuable because he didn’t make big bucks with his degree. My point simply is you can’t know what the future holds nor can a monetary value be placed on a college education. This is just my humble opinion, of course. But I would say this holds true for our favorite theatre majors as well.