I just turned 24 last month, which means now I can file for financial aid as an independant student.
It may or may not surprise you to learn that I haven't been to school in about five years. There are two major reasons for this. The first is that since I couldn't get financial aid (students under 24 have to file as dependant students, meaning their parents need to pay for part of their education, and my parents weren't anywhere near in a position to do that) I would have to pay for school out of my own pocket, which wasn't an attractive prospect. The second is that I had no real direction; no clue what, in fact, I wanted to go to school for. Since I didn't have a goal in mind, it seemed ridiculous to me to pay out a huge portion of my income or, even worse, take out thousands in loans.
I love school and I love learning, but I couldn't really justify that much expense for what would simply amount to a way to kill time.
Anyway, what happened was I landed the peemeister gig. This job, for all the complaining I do about it, is extremely sweet. I don't have a boss or any co-workers. My duties are simple and leave me with lots of spare time to surf the internet, play video games, or generally goof around. I can even sleep if I want to, right here in the office, while on the clock. I don't make a huge amount of money, but I do keep my bills paid and have enough left to buy fun toys and keep my girlfriend happy. I have health insurance and a retirement plan. I am awesome at making and sticking to a budget. I am financially stable and almost completely content.
Almost.
See, the problem is that there's this nagging thing in my head telling me that I'm wasting my life. My mother and other various family members agree with it. I'm not in school, I'm not working towards a career, I have no plans to start a family, yadda yadda yadda. Just the typical nagging that anyone in my shoes would go through.
As far as I'm concerned, life is really good and as long as I'm not placing the burden of myself in anyone else's lap and as long as I'm having fun doing it, I should go ahead and stay the course. Making my family proud of me is not a huge priority. And anyway, I'm more stable financially and emotionally than most of them were at 24. I don't really want a career or a family. What I want is constant access to the internet and video games, and a paycheck every week that covers all my ridiculous nerd hobbies.
I've somehow managed to find myself in the exact position I've wanted to be in ever since I realized I'd have to work for a living, and people tell me it's not good enough. I figure if I ever find myself not enjoying life this much, and really wishing for something more, it's never to late to pick up and get started on something else. I'm lazy, but I'm not hopeless. I'm a slacker but I'm not irresponsible.
Well okay... maybe I'm a little irresponsible.
Anyway, for better or worse, I'm 24 now and as far as the federal government is concerned that means I can get free money to help go to school. And, working the job I do, I really have no reason not to. So I applied for my aid and we'll see what happens. Of course, since my birthday is in the summer it means I won't get anything in time to go to school until next year, but that's fine with me.
There's a stack of PlayStation games here I need to get through, anyway, and Monday starts another week at the pee clinic.
4:30 am on Sunday morning. This post brought to you by way too much caffeine. I should go to bed, but I'll play more Warcraft instead.
It may or may not surprise you to learn that I haven't been to school in about five years. There are two major reasons for this. The first is that since I couldn't get financial aid (students under 24 have to file as dependant students, meaning their parents need to pay for part of their education, and my parents weren't anywhere near in a position to do that) I would have to pay for school out of my own pocket, which wasn't an attractive prospect. The second is that I had no real direction; no clue what, in fact, I wanted to go to school for. Since I didn't have a goal in mind, it seemed ridiculous to me to pay out a huge portion of my income or, even worse, take out thousands in loans.
I love school and I love learning, but I couldn't really justify that much expense for what would simply amount to a way to kill time.
Anyway, what happened was I landed the peemeister gig. This job, for all the complaining I do about it, is extremely sweet. I don't have a boss or any co-workers. My duties are simple and leave me with lots of spare time to surf the internet, play video games, or generally goof around. I can even sleep if I want to, right here in the office, while on the clock. I don't make a huge amount of money, but I do keep my bills paid and have enough left to buy fun toys and keep my girlfriend happy. I have health insurance and a retirement plan. I am awesome at making and sticking to a budget. I am financially stable and almost completely content.
Almost.
See, the problem is that there's this nagging thing in my head telling me that I'm wasting my life. My mother and other various family members agree with it. I'm not in school, I'm not working towards a career, I have no plans to start a family, yadda yadda yadda. Just the typical nagging that anyone in my shoes would go through.
As far as I'm concerned, life is really good and as long as I'm not placing the burden of myself in anyone else's lap and as long as I'm having fun doing it, I should go ahead and stay the course. Making my family proud of me is not a huge priority. And anyway, I'm more stable financially and emotionally than most of them were at 24. I don't really want a career or a family. What I want is constant access to the internet and video games, and a paycheck every week that covers all my ridiculous nerd hobbies.
I've somehow managed to find myself in the exact position I've wanted to be in ever since I realized I'd have to work for a living, and people tell me it's not good enough. I figure if I ever find myself not enjoying life this much, and really wishing for something more, it's never to late to pick up and get started on something else. I'm lazy, but I'm not hopeless. I'm a slacker but I'm not irresponsible.
Well okay... maybe I'm a little irresponsible.
Anyway, for better or worse, I'm 24 now and as far as the federal government is concerned that means I can get free money to help go to school. And, working the job I do, I really have no reason not to. So I applied for my aid and we'll see what happens. Of course, since my birthday is in the summer it means I won't get anything in time to go to school until next year, but that's fine with me.
There's a stack of PlayStation games here I need to get through, anyway, and Monday starts another week at the pee clinic.
4:30 am on Sunday morning. This post brought to you by way too much caffeine. I should go to bed, but I'll play more Warcraft instead.
1 comment:
Well I'm also 25 on the other end of the spectrum, making loads of money working for a boss with annoying co workers steady gf ready to buy a house start a family in the near future. Used to be a big pen and paper D&D nerd. Now an obsessive WoW nerd.
The point of the ramble, the grass isn't greener, it's just that dumb fence that makes it look like it.
Enjoy life all money gets you is higher bills. Keep up the blog's your what gets me through my work day. Well you and 8-bit theatre and ability to tell people to do things and they must listen.
Post a Comment