So I grew up hearing the “college isn’t for everyone” statement, like most people did. Thing is, I never thought it would be me, because when people said “college isn’t for everyone,” they’d apply it to dead-end drop outs or computer geniuses. I’m neither of those.
I’m in the second semester of my freshman year, and the problem is that there isn’t one. I’ve got wonderful friends, a roommate I love (and more friends and another lovely roommate from my last school), and I’m at the best college I’ll ever be able to go to. This is the ideal college life, it just doesn’t feel right.
I’m an aspiring writer, with two novels written that I’ve never edited, and one in progress that I’m going to try and publish. I’m majoring in creative writing now, which isn’t doing much for me at all. I’ve always had this problem with education, and I think that’s my problem. I was raised by my mother, who “scraped by college because she couldn’t follow the rules,” but I’m not sure I’ll even be able to scrape by. My heart isn’t in assignments, I want to write books instead of research papers, and more often then not, I just won’t do anything that doesn’t interest me. This was a major issue in high school. I had high SAT scores but I failed chemistry and algebra and almost didn’t graduate.
And I just feel like an English degree isn’t worth it. I’ll be just as confused and lost about what to do with my life in four years (but it would probably take me six to graduate) as I am now, except I’ll be thousands of dollars in debt and maybe a little less creative. That is, if i don’t flunk out. I failed nearly every class last semester, because I didn’t go or I didn’t care to do the homework.
I’m a very hard worker, I just don’t see any benefit in what I’m doing in class. I feel like my professors are teaching me things I already know, or things I could find at my local library.
Should I drop out? Is it true that college isn’t for everyone? I don’t know where to go from here, or how to tell my parents if I do leave. I’m just feeling very caught in the middle of lots of different possibilities, and they’re all a bit bleak.
Thank you!
I believe you were told wrong when someone told you that “college isn’t for everyone” applied to dead-end drop-outs or computer geniuses. It applies to anyone for whom college isn’t useful!
If you want to drop out, feel free to! You could go to trade school to learn a skill to be your “day job” while you write in your free time. Then, if you get published and get some success, you can drop the day job. Trade school will (likely) be much faster and cheaper than a 4-year degree.
Let us say that you want to write books. Do you not think it helpful to have knowledge in other areas to write? To learn about structure and analysis? Let us take Harry Potter. All of the spells are based on latin words. http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/07/spells-harry-potter/
If the author was unaware of Latin or didn’t know the words how would they be able to do that?
If your stories are set in the past and you have no knowledge of history, how will that work?
Also you will get critiques on your work in school. You are assuming you are awesome. What if you are not? What if you don’t sell books? Then how do you make money?
I’d like to point out that most people write what they know, they don’t learn purely for the sake of being able to write about it. The OP can pay the bills with a day job. If his/her writing career never takes off, they can face the hard truth then and perhaps try to go back to college. But if they don’t want it, they should give up their uni spot to a transfer, save themselves the student loan debt, and get a job.
JK Rowling has a degree in French and Classics. Had she gotten a degree in, say, German, I feel certain the spells would have been of Germanic origin. She didn’t go to school to learn to write for Harry Potter, she went to school of her own volition.
And plenty of writers use scholars to help them learn more, why shouldn’t this one, should he/she find it necessary?
SusieAnne said a lot of what I was going to.
JK Rowling does have a degree French and Classics, she also doesn’t recall doing much work in school. Also, bopper, I see where you’re coming from, but the questions you’re asking are a bit unnecessary. What if J.K Rowling didn’t know Latin? She could have searched ‘Latin word for werewolf’ into the google search bar and saved 50,000 dollars. (However the world was very different when she wrote Harry Potter, I realize that.)
I enjoy writing about history, and I know a lot of it from books, and the parts I don’t know I can research. I truly don’t need someone else to tell me what books to read, I can do that myself. I do understand what you’re trying to say, it’s just that it doesn’t really apply here.
And yes, I can pay bills with a day job. If writing doesn’t work out, I’ll be just as lost as a I would have been with a degree, except I won’t have any debt to pay off.
Thanks to all for the advice!
If all you are getting the degree for is to be able to write, and you will still be a barista or waiter/waitress or Walmart stocker at the end of it, then maybe college isn’t for you. But know that you are limiting your possibilities (want to be an English teacher as your “day job”? No luck without a degree… want a job as a technical writer at a software company as your day job, or as a grant writer? Not likely without a degree…). You may want to have a house, kids, etc. one day – somehow the mortgage, grocery bills, insurance, braces, etc. needs to be paid for. And a barista job won’t be so satisfying then… it would be great if you hit it big with your writing, but if you don’t (and the odds are against earning a great living or even a pretty good one as a writer), then you have limited your options.
But I also think if you can’t get yourself motivated for your long-term welfare, then you probably are wasting your parents’ money. However… it is a lot harder to go back and get that degree once you have more responsibilities later in life.
Getting a degree and getting published are two totally different things.
I think that English degree is a very good idea. In this day and age, a high school diploma simply limits you too much. And your aspirations don’t really fit under the trade school umbrella. So get the degree. Down the road, you’ll want the opportunities that a degree will afford you.
But you could get published today.
I’ve done a bit of freelance writing, and have had several articles published. (In fact, one is currently hanging on the bulletin board in our faculty room.)
Why not start small so you have some credentials when you approach a published with those two books? Google “freelance creative writing” or whatever title seems to best describe the writing you want to do. I do my freelance writing on the side— as the mom of 3 kids with a full time teaching job. I do it because I enjoy it. My articles are on what I know-- the occasional parenting article, with a greater focus on education articles. (During the time I was a SAHM, I did LOTs on education. I wrote a good part of the Geometry section for a major education website, wrote part of a chapter for a 5th grade math textbook, and I forget what else.)You could certainly do some freelance writing as a college student. The wonderful thing about freelance is that you only accept assignments you’re comfortable with.
Take a look at shmoops.com . See whether any of their current openings sound appealing, just as a way to get your feet wet.