My mental exercise

So as I was enjoying my period of self-reflection, list making, and general observation time on the bus this morning I got to thinking about this country and I came to the glaringly obvious and mostly recognized revelation that America has a confidence problem. Now what lead me to this 'light bulb above my head' kind of thought was the constant pondering I have over my own future. Recently I have been struggling with the reality that after 4 years of hard work, stress, and disappointing payoffs I get to face a job market in which people with PhD's are competing for entry level office administration positions. Lucky me. So what to do, what to do? Grad school? Expensive and mostly only useful if you actually have clue of what you want to get your degree in. Internship? Thoroughly unglamorous, unpaid, and unavailable , especially when every other post-bac student in America is hoping to score one as well. Nursing School? Would be wonderful if I had the sense to participate in anything slightly resembling science or math since my sophomore year in high school, but alas will require a short stint at Concorde career institute and a possible bridge program, most of which sounds like a lot of work to ultimately fail at something I have no natural ability in. Americorp? Seems like a great idea, besides the crappy pay, but is mostly unknown to anyone I bring it up to which makes me suspect of the idea that they are "well renowned" for providing good in-field job experience. Just working? Is the most attractive option at this point considering the fact that the thought of going back to school after working for 16 years makes me want to run for the nearest toilet, but the thought wasting that 16 years and getting pigeon-holed in an area that I will ultimately be both stuck and unhappy in doesn't make me to happy either.
So, where did all this come from? you may ask and what the hell does this have to do with the confidence of a nation?

Over the years we all have seen in an increase in the amount of students who receive a higher education and while for many this is a positive there is a definite negative side. It seems, now a days, that without a degree of some sort you are basically viewed by society as a failure. I guess I'm not sure how to say this delicately or with any kind of literary flair, but why do we suddenly everyone in this country is entitled to a higher education?

After 4 years in school I have seen my fair share of, well, idiots who didn't belong in any kind of college and in turn I have seen plenty of those who got there by working hard, studying hard, and valuing their education and I have seen both type of people fail. But when did it suddenly become practical, or logical to create a country full of people with college educations. We need people to do things like work office jobs, and be plumbers and there are people out there who WANT to do that but don't thinks its "OK" because they will be looked down upon. If every child in America attends college who will be left to work the jobs that they don't want? Now normally I am an all for one, one for all kind of liberal who thinks that we all deserve basic rights and the access to things that provide a healthy and happy life, and for some that may include college, but you know what? for some it just won't. There was many a time, especially early on, in college that I wanted to quit. I wanted to go to cooking or pastry school and start my own little restaurant, I wanted to go to massage school, I wanted to do lots of things that didn't include sitting in a classroom for 6 hours a day 5 days a week. Now. I realized very quickly that those things weren't going to be right for me, but who's to say they aren't right for the kid who falls asleep next to me in class everyday and never turns in his homework or the girl who studies so hard and still manages to pull C's on her tests who ends up in fits of tears every finals week. Who knows. But I do know that I'm sick and tired of hearing kids saying that they are going to college because they "had nothing better to do", well Jesus I wish I had nothing better to do than to waste upwards of 20 thousand dollars a year too but I guess we can't all be that lucky. I'm not saying you shouldn't go to college if you don't know what you want to do we all change our minds, but honestly we all have at least an idea of what our strengths and weaknesses are ultimately those are what end up determining most peoples field of choice (or it should at least).

This country continues to to flex its muscles like an over-roided Mr. universe on the world stage but eventually its going to suffer the consequences of its drug use and those muscles are going to disappear in a very painful and public festival of disintegration and when they do we are all going to have to take a good long look in the mirror and ask ourselves if it was really worth it to pretend to be something we were never meant to be?