Dropping out to tune in
illustration: Scott Drummond
By Mike Bauer, Jayplay writer
Over winter break, New Year's Eve in a friend's basement to be specific, I was finishing a bottle of Korbel champagne when my friend told me she was frustrated with college. I poured myself more champagne from the now near-empty bottle in a last ditch effort of reaching inebriation. She poured her soul out, admitting she thought her major was a joke. Apparently her major is tourism and she wasn't sure whether she wanted to continue her current path at school or pick a different career.
I found myself relating with my friend to some extent because I too am getting disinterested in my major. Although she had no interest in hers from the beginning and chose it as a backup in case her collegiate bowling career didn't work out, I chose journalism because that's all I could picture myself doing. Whether it's because I've burned out my desire to write or because I've shifted my interests elsewhere, I don't see myself being a writer as a lifetime career. I see it as a means to an end. It's something to do for a few years to earn money for myself and purchase equipment for my new interest: audio engineering and programming.
chase equipment for my new interest. My friend and I have some differences in how we're approaching our last days of school. She said if she changed her career path, she would have no idea what she would want to do. I know what I want to do and thankfully, I don't need additional schooling to do it. Although I could go to graduate school to learn how to run audio recording software on a computer, I can learn how to use the software just as easily on a computer at home — the same type you use to type essays and download music and porn. I have no desire to drop more cash into a university and waste more time as a student making sure I have enough cash for tuition and bills, let alone trying to find work over breaks to pay those things off. These are things my friend would have to deal with for a few more years if she changed her mind about her major. I don't envy her.
I will graduate in journalism because I'm so close to having a degree and I just want to get away from the unstable college tasks of managing time for various practices and projects, studying and writing articles. I look forward to the idea of working for a set amount of time each day, several days a week, and then coming home, paying bills, and doing whatever I want with my free time with no worries about finishing assignments for the next day or studying for a test over the weekend. Some stability would be a welcome change of pace.
My friend, however, doesn't seem to want to get her degree in tourism and work in that field while figuring out what she really wants to do with her life. She would rather stop going to school to figure it out, further delaying her graduation date. This doesn't make sense to me. Instead of toughing it out and earning whatever tourism majors make, she wants to work at her job at O'Hare Airport in Chicago, which probably pays less than what she'd make doing whatever tourism majors do. If work is the inevitable result, why not take the one that can benefit you the most financially until you figure out what you want to do?
As my friend finished telling her story and I finished drinking my last glass of champagne in my still-sober state, she turned to me and asked what I thought of her situation. After laying on the floor silent for a few seconds, I finally told her what I usually tell my friends when they have a dilemma and come to me for advice: Do what you think is right for you and makes you happiest. Take some time and think about what you want to do and where you want to be in your life. If my friend will be happiest just working without a degree, I won't say it's wrong. I don't agree with it, but I'm not living her life.
Mike Bauer can be reached at mbauer@kansan.com.
2.18.04 Joyjoy
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