Do overs in real life are rarely given and rarely produce any better result
My daughter sent me the link that follows with a simple question: Can she do this ? My daughter was probably in the camp of You made your bed now sleep in it. She is o f the hard work variety and thinks that everyone should work as hard as she. Me I am not so unbending or unsympathetic, for sometime our daughter forgets that mom and pop picked up the cost and continue to pay. Something that also is increasingly rare these days. I frequently hear parents say that their kids are totally on their own for college, and frequently that means the kid graduates into a 100K +debt 6 months out of school.
Life is a bitch and then you die
I renamed the link with an expression that I have always liked. I think I first heard it from a law school classmate, who would catch a ride home with me. He was good company on the late night rides home from classes, when you were tired and could hardly stay awake, were it not for some conversation. His life is a bitch and then you die expression was pretty popular at that time. Our lives were really kind of a bitch, we worked all day, went to school until late, studied all weekend, scrimped to pay tuition and rent and food. Four years of unbelievable work, tension, stress for the promise of being able to make a decent living. It only worked for us because we worked and went at night and did not incur the debt .
Our mid eighties class was probably the last grouping of Lawyers to be able to pull it off, for soon after our completion the legal climate and the legal career opportunities took a nosedive. At the same time the cost jumped geometrically and loans from college needed to be deferred, and what better way to defer than to go to grad school. (From discussions with others, it is not much different for Doctors or Dentist, especially the latter)
Well as has become well known , that promised decent living is largely ephemeral for Law School Graduates. Jobs are fewer and farther between. The stress and constant hustle of the solo practitioner is not at all attractive to anyone. Heck , in many areas of the nation a school teacher can pocket more than a solo practitioner in half the time, no nights or weekends to boot.
Somehow I feel sorry for this young lady, as she decided to go to law school and she is 10 years out of school and is finally realizing that she will not have a successful legal career, yet she carries the equivalent of a mortgage , a mortgage that she can't walk away from . There is no discharge in bankruptcy and no walking away from the debt, It follows forever. But she is screaming Do Over, Do Over. It is too late for her do over, it is already done. There is no resurrection of a career at this point in her life, she needs to try and move on. I feel sorry for her because I know that she is feeling the sting of the knowledge that this mess is of her own making. Her desperation causes her to avoid her responsibility for her own state of being. She wants relief and she wants sympathy, I think she can have the latter but not the former unless some things really change drastically.
But in her tale is a cautionary tale for all young people about to go off to school. Figure out why and where you are going first. The cost of your education may cost you your life, literally, and that seems to be the case for ever increasing numbers. I come across people in who are still wheeling around their own college debt when their children are starting to go off to school . It was a heavy cost to pay. It hurt their personal relationships, their prospects for retirement, their moving ahead.
Finally , however the message is starting to get through.. We all need to seek fewer tribulations and that means thinking about things ahead of time. We are also coming to grips with the idea that each succeeding generation does not necessarily get yet another step up the ladder as it respects living standard. It is that last idea that is particularly bitter in the mouths of Americans. Thus the popularity of someone like Sanders. They are feeling the Bern because they don't want to have to feel the pain. Hers is a moon shot at best.
I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!" John 16:33 Me I am left wondering how did we run the worlds greatest economy into the ground, to the point where those who work hard, get an education , make all the right moved can't even find a job.