Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Indecision

   Most high school students anticipate college to be the best time of their lives but also expect higher education will be the best way to obtain a well-paying job and career after graduation. While in college, students study as hard as they can as they dream about the day they walk up to recieve their prestined degree. The reality of life gives a hard punch in the face when after recieving their degree, college graduates are left to fend for themselves with no place to live (unless they can stand living with their parents), no job (unless they want a minimum wage fast food or factory job), and between $30,000 to over $100,000 in debt from student loans. In todays economy, most students are left open to failure because no companies are hiring in your degree or the only job you can get is flipping burgers, cleaning toliets, or working on an assembly line.
   I am unfortunately one of these college graduates. I spent 4 and a half years in college to become the first in my family to graduate college and recieve a bachelors degree only to spend six months unemployed looking for work while dreading the day the college loan payments started to come. I decided to settle for a factory job fixing defects in high-end furniture  making $9 an hour barely making my loan payments and living with my parents. I spent three months there until I found another factory position with a better company. The new company offered health, dental, and vision while also providing a very good retirement plan. This new job, although still a factory position , paid $16 and hour - almost double what I was making before. So now I am $80,000 in debt from college but I can easily make my payments everymonth as long as I can suck up my pride and work in the factory - or now, as I have been moved within the company, I have to suck up my pride to clean toliets, kitchenettes, and offices I once pictured myself working in.
   I wonder everyday if I should simply quit, sell everything I own, and move somewhere else but I think about the money, the insurance, and the benefits and I know I can't leave. I know that right now there isn't a better offer anywhere else. I simply have to swallow my pride and keep thinking that there are many many people out there worse off than I am. I could have a family I have to support or I could still be in the other job making far less money. At least for now I can keep saving my extra money and I remember that as long as I have my job, I can keep my payments up to date which means I will have a very good credit score in the future when I decide to buy a new car or house.

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