Marching to a different DO-rum

So I'm quitting school again. My 5th college. My sisters will be furious. I waste money and that's an awful truth. My last three colleges were paid by me - they were not a total waste. I did pick up a few things here and there. Accounting skills for one. And I can now understand shorthand.  

But hear me out - or rather, let me talk coz I'm practicing my speech to those who would be furious - my sisters most likely. 

When I got to college, I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I took up accounting. I liked it but it was just another course. I later discovered that I really don't want to work. I want to DO - to use my skills on work I would love to do everyday. Very few people have that kind of luxury. Most of them are rich enough to be allowed that luxury. I didn't ... at first.

The year I told my mom I quit school, I started working at odd jobs with computers. I finally got a paid job and I was taught Excel - it was easy and the ease of learning it was a revelation for me. I learned to organized data and realized that I've been doing just that at a younger age, on notebooks - lists and expanded lists.

When I got to government work I was pretty good with computers. Then I attended an HTML seminar. I think that totally cleared any  doubt what I wanted to DO. No schools were offering courses on IT then except STI and I was pretty busy making ends meet to even consider school. I was handling expenses when my mom got sick and handled it awhile longer after she died so school was no longer an option. So I learned everything I wanted to learn on the internet. 

I got pretty good and started a small business on my free time - making artwork, logos, print designs eventually, websites. It was the scariest yet the most fulfilling work I've ever done. And I knew this is what I wanted to DO.

I have recently been promoted and my boss encouraged me to finish school because the next position in my line of work will require a degree. I was also in the position where I can now afford to get myself to school but the courses I wanted had steep tuition. On the encouragement of my co-workers and family, I decided to settle to just getting a diploma - cheap, easy - any diploma. So I enrolled.

I am on my 1st semester of my 5th college, to be exact, just after my first exams, when this school offered online IT degree courses. It was a new program, so new that nobody I knew heard about it. Tuition was steep but they allow students to take a few online classes at a time in a trimester enrollment. It will probably take me a lot longer than the current school. But I will surely have computer subjects every effing trimester.

I don't want any other line of work except with computers. I'm not good with people but I know how to handle code - I love handling code. They just hired another IT guy in the office so that makes it 7 guys below me - four of them IT graduates. I'm now at the highest position I will ever be as an undergrad in an IT position and I'm now handling web design because no one else had the experience or the know-how in my division. Even with a degree in a different course, I will probably fare well when I go head to head with any of these guys in web design - but will my current course teach me how to be a better programmer? Probably not. It will probably make me a better division head - and I don't want to be a division head. I have a very specific goal. Think Mike Rowe.

It makes no sense to me to take a course that will make me better at something I do not want to do. It might take me 10 years to graduate but don't great artists suffer for their craft? I will never get rich but that was never what I wanted to be. I just want to be happy ... and to DO things I am passionate about. And if it things don't work out in my current job, I will still be working as a web designer and doing programming jobs on the side.

If that makes me an idiot - well, I'd rather be a happy idiot than a ho-hum graduate. I am where I should be doing what I should DO.

Comments

D@phneL@ur@ said…
Great attitude! As long as you are happy doing what you are passionate about, so be it.

But this post hits close to home as I've been persuading my hubby to finish his masteral studies but he always comes up with excuses. That he is fine with just teaching and has no further ambition of being dean or even chairperson of his department. But my main worry is that when push comes to shove and they strictly enforce the rule that all profs need to have Masters degree, he will be the first one out. But he claims he has security of tenure and this rule doesn't apply to him. Geez1 I'm done convincing him and just keep praying he is right in his stubborn stance. I keep stressing myself out over something I can't control so whatever na lang he he he
duds said…
I think it was Malcolm Gladwell who wrote about turning points caused by a series of events. It maybe a need, an opportune time or an inspiration.

The reason I felt strongly about my passions is because I have nothing to lose. Im poor but not dirt poor. I have a job I love and a hobby that helps me earn. The only drawback is when everybody now gets a promotion, I wont be on the list. But I can live with that because I know Im not ready for that job. It will hurt I expect, but I wont die of shame or regret or even hunger. We make our choices, and try to live with it.

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