Jump to content

What life-path did you take?


pyromancer

What life path did you take?  

  1. 1.

    • School -> University -> Graduate Career
      99
    • School -> College -> Employment
      67
    • School -> Employment
      11
    • School -> Unemployment, living on benefits
      5
    • School -> Partnership -> Family (traditional housewife/househusband role or LGBT homemakers)
      1
    • School -> Further Education -> Drop Out -> Alternative Lifestyle
      16
    • School -> Joined Family Business
      3
    • School -> Single Parenthood
      2
    • School -> Services (Armed, Police, Fire)
      2
    • School -> Religious Ministry
      1
    • Other (please give details!)
      28

This poll is closed to new votes


Recommended Posts

I picked "University>Grad Career"

Specifically: (It's been so far)...High school>College>University.

Next will be BA (in fiber art), then on to Graduate school for a BFA, (for even more fiber.) Mmm.. Fiber. :lol:

I don't know what will come after that.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for that Yam, very interesting! Does this mean that in the US most kids don't start reading till they're 7, or is it normal for parents to teach them younger? I went to primary school at 4, but mum had already taught me to read.

I first read The Hobbit when I was 8 or 9, and was already into Andre Norton sci-fi by then.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I've gone the fairly standard 'School -> University -> Graduate Career' route.

But the problem is, I'm now in the last stage of that. So is it really the end? What comes next?

In fact this has affected me for a long while.

At school, I knew what I was aiming for in life - i.e. to get to University.

At Uni, I knew what I was aiming for - to get a job.

And now I have a job... so where do I go next?

Link to post
Share on other sites

for me, School --> University (Geography BA) --> Work (hated it) --> University (IT BA) --> College (post-graduate Cartography diploma - just started two months ago). I hated the year I spent away from school, I'm just not comfortable in a non-school environment. I'll probably go on and get my masters and doctorate at a later date and then teach.

Link to post
Share on other sites
I've gone the fairly standard 'School -> University -> Graduate Career' route.

But the problem is, I'm now in the last stage of that. So is it really the end? What comes next?

In fact this has affected me for a long while.

At school, I knew what I was aiming for in life - i.e. to get to University.

At Uni, I knew what I was aiming for - to get a job.

And now I have a job... so where do I go next?

Isn't the usual path from there to get ever more senior (and hence better paid) jobs until you end up at senior manager or director level, looking forward to a very well financed retirement?

Alternatively, pay all your debts, then sell everything and disapear round the world, and wind up captaining a dodgy tugboat in the far east somewhere.. :-)

I do actually know someone who plans to drop out of a corporate career once his debts and mortgage are all paid off, and take up casual work to give a little spending money and enough time to enjoy life. I also know someone else who abandoned an IT carrer to become a motorcycle instructor, and who proved to be so good at it he's now an instructor of instructors. Being paid to ride a motorbike in the glorioius scenery of North Yorkshire must be a seriously pleasant way to earn a living.

Link to post
Share on other sites

In NZ - in my time- you had several academic hurdles:at High School,the utmost was UE Scholarship- which I did not pass.

I did several units of a Law degree. I left to become a fishnchip cook.

I was a VERY good fishnchip cook.

I am a very good writer.

Which all goes to show.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Thanks for that Yam, very interesting! Does this mean that in the US most kids don't start reading till they're 7, or is it normal for parents to teach them younger? I went to primary school at 4, but mum had already taught me to read.

I first read The Hobbit when I was 8 or 9, and was already into Andre Norton sci-fi by then.

I would make the argument that depending on the area, its socio-economic status and general educational attainment the teaching of reading varies. For the most part, reading would hopefully begin at home and students would have 'book sense' by the time they enter school. However, the 'act of teaching' reading usually begins at the pre-school/nursery level with letter recognition, reading left-to-right, basic word recognition. Most kindergartens repeat many of these same lessons since pre-school/nursery school isn't necessary. But kindergartens tend to move quickly through these steps and advance there. But again, this tends to vary from town to town, school to school. I began reading at home, developed some basic reading skills in pre-school. However, where I taught, pre-school was more a form of child care and parents had less time to spend with kids because of a need to work or find money to pay for basic neccesities. Therefore, students often entered kindergarten with very little alphabet awareness, word recognition, or book sense.

It is well documented that there is a huge differrence in households (based on socioeconomic status/educational attainment) in the exposure to reading/words that children get by the age of six. I don't want to imply that if someone has less monetary capital they don't care about reading but that there are other necessities in life that must be obtained before one can begin to worry about education/reading (food, shelter, heat, etc.) and that certainly reading exposure is not universally less in lower income households. Studies have demonstrated that children from lower income homes tend to receive only 100 hours of reading by the time they are 6; kids from higher income homes receive 1700 hours of reading by the time they are 6. Lower income homes tend to also be less print-rich (fewer words, books, opportunities for reading). Libraries tend to be fewer and book availability less. Unfortunately, the US does a terrible job of providing educational equity from an early age. Many kids start elementary school already with an educational achievement gap. Anyway, my point is to say that reading age varies hugely. One could not read until 6 or 7 or could read as early as 4 or 5 depending on home/school conditions.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I went to Public School, and left school when I was seventeen. I didn't go to college or University, and went into the family business, perpetuating a silver spoon still in one's mouth. Made a tidy living, and sold the business when my father died; something I don't think I ever got over really. I couldn't carry on the business when he died, I was so affected.

There was a thread here about genetics - very complicated, but I once did discuss something akin to 'our' ethos with my Dad's sister and brother (who didn;t get married or have relationships). My Aunt and Uncle had been astonished to find that my Dad had kind of..broken away, and well, started a family - as though they thought that it was unthinkable. Maybe it was to them. But maybe that gene's passed through to me, in that I see some deja vu vis a vis my Dad and his siblings. In fact my two sisters got married and knocked out a whole heap of kids. But.. me, I'm with the original family values...a bit weird, unquantifiable as to relationships.

See, I think it's just conditioning that people force themselves through hoops. Eeee lad, when are you gettin' married? heh

Link to post
Share on other sites

Genetic traits can hop generations, I believe, so you could have inherited your parents' sibings traits from the shared ancestery.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm going to graduate here in about another semester with a BS in chemistry. I was planning to go to california...work for one year at a winery....then go to UC Davis and get a Masters in wine making.

Then...who knows.

But....That might just change. I might be taking a small little detour. Heck. It's very confusing....but exciting. I'll know by march. I'll have to. BUT...i will eventually go to grad school. But for now...i just want to get my hands dirty with wine making.....and have fun doing it. And be surrounded with good friends. But...i am of the firm belife that life is for living...and you sould FOLLOW YOUR HEART. So...we'll see.

Link to post
Share on other sites

School --> Uni --> Job

But next year I'm going back to uni to do a PhD, so I've got 3 years of poverty and hard labour to look forward to :?

It's going to be great :D

Link to post
Share on other sites

School->College->Employment->Unemployment->Grad School->Hopefully employment again?

Not as linear a path as it sounds, unemployment pocketed in between and working a bit in grad school

Link to post
Share on other sites
I'm going to graduate here in about another semester with a BS in chemistry. I was planning to go to california...work for one year at a winery....then go to UC Davis and get a Masters in wine making.

You can get a masters in wine making??!!

Wow, we all need to get invited to your project demos...

Link to post
Share on other sites

High School (4 years) -> University (4 years) -> Internships (1 year) -> Master's (2 years) -> Full-time job (Present) -> Doctoral (start in Fall 2006)

My cousin asked me how old I would be after getting a PhD and said, "Don't you want to get married?" :roll:

Link to post
Share on other sites

School > first attempt at college in which I flunked due to a total lack of self discipline > second attempt at college, did better > university.

In my second year, feeling overwhelmed, after a Wildlife Biology degree. The sad thing? I don't know what I'm going to do with it. My tutor says that's normal, but... meh, I just feel like I'm there because I don't have anything better to do, and because I don't have any other options beyond "go out into real world, get a job", which I've had no luck with whatsoever. So I figure that hey, degree=better job, might as well have one, etc etc. But realistically speaking, I don't even know what career I want. I like art, but no WAY am I making that my career. I've heard what it's like. And "normal" jobs... meh. I just don't know if I can see myself getting up and going to work on a nice regular basis like that... sooner or later I'd snap, start missing my long nights talking to people, blah blah blah.

And I dunno what else to do. I just know I need money so I don't have to... *twitch* live with other people... yeah, nightmare of mine, that is. If I'm going to live with someone, it had better be a good friend, not some random stranger. Okay, so if my luck holds out maybe in a few years I'll be with a partner. But not a stranger. HELL NO.

Sadly, it seems like the only way. Why life can't be more geared towards people who like their own space, hell knows.

So in short, I'm essentially doomed. Yay, I'm so happyyyyy today!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Aeireono- cheers! More cheers! Cheer-ups even!

It does, and it doesnt, take money to live without other people

(or to live with people you find congenial.) You have to be prepared to do

without an awful lot of social status things...and normal comforts...and support&feedback that most of us crave.

You're lucky in that you're engaged in scientific learning & endeavour (even if wellpaying jobs dont loom immediately!) The mind is your world-oyster (as is the imagination for all of us - should we choose- too.)

Dunno. We are powerfully wired to want human contact & esteem even when we are asexual. I have a large family group of which I am an intrinsic part:

my friends like me. May we all be so lucky- cheers, kia ora, Islander9

Link to post
Share on other sites
Interesting that most answering so far are on an academic or at least partly academic track - is this a reflection of the people most likely to have Internet access and time for forums like this, or some kind of asexual mindset showing through?

Or...perhaps it's just that people like me (school>job) kinda' look like first class losers and don't talk much about it :oops: Getting through 12 years was hell, it wasn 't really a 'choice'...even if I could have gone any higher, life started to happen and it wasn't going to wait for me to get through any more school. Had to get out there and earn my life.

Seriously tho', I don't think it has anything to do with asexual mindset and judging by the people I've bumped into all around various sights, I don't think there's any type voted 'most likely to have internet access'. I think everyone can comfortably say they've seen evidence that 'any arsehole can have internet access'. :P

Link to post
Share on other sites
Interesting that most answering so far are on an academic or at least partly academic track - is this a reflection of the people most likely to have Internet access and time for forums like this, or some kind of asexual mindset showing through?

Or...perhaps it's just that people like me (school>job) kinda' look like first class losers and don't talk much about it :oops: Getting through 12 years was hell, it wasn 't really a 'choice'...even if I could have gone any higher, life started to happen and it wasn't going to wait for me to get through any more school. Had to get out there and earn my life.

Fair enough - I think that happens to more people than we realise. It's interesting how many have picked "other" and then posted what are, to me, just subtle variations on "School - Uni - Career" - but are obviously more different to the people who've posted them. Possibly it's also an age thing - I suppose when you're still at university the details of bits of work between bits of study are more significant than when you look back over 15 or 20 odd years of work, where the whole thing coalesces(sp!) into "that's when I got my qualifications, after which I got my career". Which probably means polls like this are perpetually meaningless anyway. :D

Seriously tho', I don't think it has anything to do with asexual mindset and judging by the people I've bumped into all around various sights, I don't think there's any type voted 'most likely to have internet access'. I think everyone can comfortably say they've seen evidence that 'any arsehole can have internet access'. :P

Aha - You get the same porn, breast and penis enlargement spam I do then? I think that about proves it! :twisted:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Currently attending A&M to get a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Haven't decided if I want to get a masters aftermy bachelors yet, but that'll wait until I get closer to my bacholers (I'm not even into upper level undergrad courses yet, will be next semester)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well not being as "cerebrally enhanced" as the rest of the posters it would seem.

Mine has gone a little like this thus far.

high school -> Work(5years) -> Unemployed(1year) -> 3 month course -> work(7 years) -. Unemployed(1year) -> 1 year course(where i am right now, last week of study) -> annnd back to being unemployed(again)

Link to post
Share on other sites

School> drop out> return to school>graduate from highschool>WORK!>briefly return to school (TEACHING, of all things!?)>continue working>briefly return to school (waste of time)>continue working>get married>continue working>die.

-Greybird

Link to post
Share on other sites
Seriously tho', I don't think it has anything to do with asexual mindset and judging by the people I've bumped into all around various sights, I don't think there's any type voted 'most likely to have internet access'. I think everyone can comfortably say they've seen evidence that 'any arsehole can have internet access'. :P

Aha - You get the same porn, breast and penis enlargement spam I do then? I think that about proves it! :twisted:

*cackle!* Y'know, the sales ones don't bug me as much as they used to, I mean, they're in sales, their job is to sell and it's just as annoying getting one for penis enlargement as it is to get ones for pre-approved mortgages.

The ones I'm talking about, though is "How R U, I M Fine, I got 2 go B4 I miss my bus"

Link to post
Share on other sites

Aha - You get the same porn, breast and penis enlargement spam I do then? I think that about proves it! :twisted:

*cackle!* Y'know, the sales ones don't bug me as much as they used to, I mean, they're in sales, their job is to sell and it's just as annoying getting one for penis enlargement as it is to get ones for pre-approved mortgages.

The ones I'm talking about, though is "How R U, I M Fine, I got 2 go B4 I miss my bus"

The thing that amazes me is when the same company (or at least the same botnet) sends both penis enlargement *and* breast enlargement spam to the same address at work - do they think we employ some strange new breed or "super-sexuals" who are so sexual they need both at once to keep up with each other?

We once got a penis enlargement one, in HTML (work policy dictated Outhouse, sadly) which had a row of rather obviously photoshopped pics of "before", "during" and "after" using their product. Like anyone would actualy want a penis the size of a cucumber? Ouch!

The badly spelled ones, created to get past Baysean filtering, are just plain evil IMO.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I chose the alternative lifestyle idea, because that's how it's looking right now. I've been alternating between working and schooling for the last, what, three years, and I can't see myself getting a degree in anything "useful" so...Hippy commune type things are starting to look good, but then again, so is praying for some kind of Ragnorak.

-LD

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...

I'm going to go to college/university so I can get a good career and hopefully work as a self-employed writer or artist at some point. That way I don't have to take orders from others for all of my life, and I get to live on my own schedule. Besides, I'm looking forward to finding friends at college and learning about things that high school doesn't teach you. I'm not sure what yet.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 months later...
LisaRochell

I'm currently in my third and final year at University. Unfortunately, because of the Fibromyalgia Syndrome reducing my maintainable energy levels to 10 hours a week, something tells me I'm not going to get a graduate career, or any decent job for that matter!

Hopeful life path is a Masters and a job through the Student Support and Counselling Services recommendations (they deal with careers for graduates with disabilities). Likely life path is state benefits and lots of job application rejections. Miraculous life path a cure for FMS or winning the lottery jackpot. :D

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...