You Say You Want a Revolution

You might criticize me because I am a white female with a Master's degree. What do I have to worry about? Believe me - a lot. I work my ass off every day of the week so that I can feel like I am contributing something. I am trying to work in my "expert" field, but that just isn't happening right now. Every day I think about the loans that I will have to start paying in a few months. Each day I think about all the time that I spent in school. Do I regret it? Not really because it made me the person I am to do. But, when I look at the bill and I look at my bank account, I wonder what it all was for.

I'm tired. No...I am sick and tired of the current situation. I am tired that young people were told they should go to college to make better opportunities for their lives. What actually happens? You go to college not knowing what you want to do. You go and major in something like "Art History" or "History" or "Literature" or "Communications" because you really have no idea what you want to do or you are told to follow you "passion." Well you know what, what they should say is "Is your passion worth $100,000.00+ ?" The whole time you sign your signature on a paper, but you really aren't educated about how much your education is costing you and what it will do to the rest of your life.

You then get out of college and there are NO jobs. I got a M.F.A. and I have many intelligent, educated, and supposedly lucky friends. Really? Are we the lucky ones? None of us can find a job. And the ones that do are working 3 or 4 jobs. We are struggling to pay loans that will take a minimum of 30 years to pay off. And most of my friends have still never had the opportunity to take a moment to figure out what they actually want to do. How could you have the time to work on yourself? You are too busy working and figuring out how you can move out of your parents house or not rely on them to help you pay your rent. We have created a society of 20 somethings that are miserable and it isn't fair.

This has nothing to do with Obama (well, a bit) because he is NOT the only one to blame. It goes back to Reagan and then moved forward from there as we racked up more and more debt and allowed corporate greed to grown and grow. Corporations don't care about you. They don't care about the fact that you will eat peanut butter and jelly every week until you are 40 (well, I happen to like pb&j). They don't care that all you can afford to eat is fast food and then you start to ruin your health. They don't care that when you get sick, you have to worry about how you can afford to take care of yourself. All they care about is how they are going to profit from your misery.

So..YOU need to care. And to those of you that are making fun of the Occupy Wall Street protestors - shame on you! Even if you have a job, you are part of the 99%. You will never have what your parents had or their parents had. I feel bad that you can't recognize that people are robbing you every day of the week. Shame to the police who are abusing their power, because the protestors are fighting for them too. Men and women who are supposed to protect and serve us but we don't give them the proper money for it.

Figure out what it is YOU can do - something has to change. Educate yourself.

Will I encourage my children to go to college when they are older? Probably not - only if they want a certain skill like a doctor or a lawyer. I am a firm believer in self-education and that you don't need a stupid piece of paper to show that you "know" something. People should get a job and work and then go to school if they find out it is what they need to do.

Sure, money can't buy you happiness, but the lack of it sure can cause a lot of anxiety.