Anyone else teetering on the brink?
 

I've pretty much been

Hang in there buddy!!!!!!! Here's somebody else praying that the so called "life" after college is worth all the lost sleep, worry, and tired fingers.

oh yeah - I am so totally with you here man. I was the responsable one and worked all throughout highschool and saved most of it for college and was tapped out by the second year - now I am looking at debt up to my eyeballs - just had surgery last summer so THAT didn't help and I have had less that stellar experiences with two of the people I was closest to in the whole world ......and then there is career planning - cashiering over christmas - and parents with a sadistic sense of humor when it comes to jokes about where my school funding has gone.

"and the career planning advisor would come to school and he would simple state: "what can I say? I ADVISE you to get a career." - Eddie Izzard: Dressed to Kill

I hear that. I think college is meant to make people like us almost lose our minds. Maybe it's a test to see how much we can take before we crack. Hang in there!

yeah college is meant to make you nutty.

you'll live hun.. sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders. Im goin through a lot right now too and I know its all gonna work out....patience...

Just remember that you made all the choices that put you where you are, and you can make other choices now. If your life really is unbearable, make some choices that will make it bearable: quit the flight school till things are more laid back, cut back on classes so you can get a part-time job, find out about deferrment on student loans, look into carpooling options, get creative. Two years is a long time to feel like you're on the edge - why are you doing this to yourself?

Good luck!

Life does not get easier or harder after college. OK, maybe for a little while until you buy a house or have kids. What if you're not having kids or buying a house? Well, believe me SOMETHING will enter your life that will make you worry and stress out ...

You may be taking on too much and if that's the case you should address it now. If it is a personality trait of yours to tend to overwork then you may continue doing that the rest of your life ... but you don't have to.

I do feel for you though. I remember going to school and feeling overwhelmed.

The point is that worry and stress don't stop after college; you just get better at dealing with it. You begin to realize that you are in control of the situation ... you made the choices ... so it really just doesn't get to you as much.

I am definitely on the brink...

Have you considered dropping out of college? A lot of people will say that's horrible advice, but college isn't for everybody. There are other ways of getting into the work force besides getting a degree.

Plus, you can always join the workforce now, and finish up your degree part time. A lot of times an employer will even give you tuition assistance.

Also, I agree with vanblah... life is always gonna be tough, but you gotta make it work for you.

Also, I'm drunk.

Well, dropping out of school is not an option for me. I am hoping to fly for the Navy or Marine Corps once I graduate, and I need a college degree for that. I'm actually planning on going to Marine Corps Officer Candidate School this summer and hopefully be offered a commision for when I graduate.

I do appreciate all the advice though. I am not so much worried about school as I am about everything else. School would be a lot less stressful if I did not have to worry about money..

I just can't wait until this frickin semester is over :p

Ok, you think you're on the brink now, wait til you become an officer and actually have troops to be responsible for. Good Luck in the Corps. It was an exciting 6 years for me when I was there. :thumbsup:

It's all a scam. You're going to graduate with ridiculous student loan debt and then discover that you can't get a job in your chosen field so you'll wind up working at a job you hate with people who hate you. You'll probably get married in a few years, then your wife will get tired of you or you'll get tired of her and you'll get divorced, losing half of everything you own and a significant portion of your future earnings. Hopefully you won't have any kids or else you'll be responsible for even more money for thos nasty little monsters that probably aren't even yours but it doesn't matter because the state you're in presumes paternity if the children are born during marriage. So between the spousal support, child support, lawyer's fees and mounting hooker bills you'll have to downgrade your lifestyle and rent a shitty apartment where some fuckhead breaks into your apartment and steals your unimpressive but sentimentally valued comic book collection.

Soon you'll realize that without any real means or motivation to enhance your life you're just wasting away, probably to cancer which you don't have health insurance to treat, working for the man, helping the rich and powerful stay that way, and waiting to die.

Just hope that they cremate your ashes instead of sending you to a funeral home where some corpse fucking madman will have his way with your rectum before they bury you under pounds of dirt and everybody forgets about you. Your rotten son (the one who survived the heroin overdose) won't even come to your grave anyway.

Well said!

Yeah, but I think I'll enjoy being in the Corps a lot more than being in school :p

I'm a large advocate for schooling, but I will admit that graduating from college was definitely the biggest relief that I ever experienced.

It's hard to convince someone that all the anguish and stress is worth it, because the rewards seem totally intangible and unreachable. I know when I was in school, I had a horrible time, until I found what I wanted to do and saw the means to accomplish it.

It sounds like you're pretty certain on what you want to do, so that's good.

Just take it one day at a time. It's always a juggling act, but like people said earlier, you just learn to deal with it better.

Good luck.

I am right there with you. I'm finishng my master's next semester and every month is a struggle to get the bills paid, log enough hours at my part-time job (I am a graduate instructor as well), and then find time to simply relax.

What has helped me? The struggle itself. Knowing that one day inthe future when I am exactly where I want to be that this time, right here, right now - was worth it.

If you keep working hard there will come a day when you will be sitting back on a beach somewhere, with a cold drink in one hand and hopefully someone lovely in the other and it will dawn upon you that you deserve every bit of that. You deserve it because of times like now when you sought advice, vented frustration, and put one foot in front of the other and kept going.

Don't quit. Attack your challenges with fury and passion, everyday.

Unless you're wife divorces you because you're so busy working, your son nearly overdoses on heroin, and you develop colon cancer before you're 40. I guess I deserve that too though? Because I didn't work hard enough, is that it?

Hate to break it to you, buddy...life doesn't get any easier after college. That's why highschool and college are the "good old days".

Trying having the responsibility of a mortgage and bills, saving for the future, paying for the past, and feeding mouths other than your own.

Thinks don't get easier...you just get better at juggling them. Hang in there and it will all work itself out...

get used to it dude.....I've been thru the same thing, and in my situation it got worse once out of school. Like others have said you will find yourself with large debt, and a shitty low paying job to begin with. So good luck.....I've been on the brink for about 5 years now,(finally it's getting easier though) and wish everyday that I was BACK IN school!!! Aviation industry is tough too, cause you have so much work to do once you get your liscense, to get the hours.....except instructing for hours, pays little etc......

I hear ya man. i was one of those people that never did a thing in high school and just managed to sneak in. having to actually work at school blew me away and i almost quit. just hang in there because you get used to it. they make it really hard in order to filter out the people that cant take it. just hang in and you'll be glad you did when you come out the other side

I hear ya man. i was one of those people that never did a thing in high school and just managed to sneak in. having to actually work at school blew me away and i almost quit. just hang in there and you'll get used to it. they make it really hard in order to filter out the people that cant take it. just hang in and you'll be glad you did when you come out the other side.

Our lives seem to be quite similar.

I am graduating with a degree in commercial aviation this semester, so I know about the flight cost. I know exactly what it is like to have to study like a normal college student and then have to go fly all the time. The time crunch makes working almost impossible.

I started the program at a satellite school back home. I decided to try and work, do school, and fit in flying where I could. After three years I only had about 1.5 years of schooling actually done. I simply worked to much in order to not take out loans. Then I transferred over to the university and decided not to work so that I could actually focus on my schooling.

I am now $60,000 in debt with student loans, but I will have the piece of paper and a decent GPA. A lot of the kids here are even more in debt. It is a painful reality.

Have you looked into the military reimbursing your loans? You sign up and they pay off some or all of your student debt. I believe (not positive though) they do that if you sign up for X amount of years. I have considered this option, but the fiance has convinced me not to do it.

Good luck!

I'm confused. You want to fly for the armed forces but you are paying for flight instruction? This will easily cost you upwards of $5000 and if you do get admitted into an academy the cost for flying their planes with their instructors will be zero. Unless I'm missing something...I realize having some flight time & maybe the private license might make you a better candidate, but the simple fact that you can probably already land a plane & have some flight experience puts you ahead of most of the other candidates. Let the government pay for your flight school & drop that for a while. If you decide you need to get back into it, do it when it won't cost you $125 an hour. You'll also get to fly a lot nicer aircraft than anything your flight school has!