so last year I made the decision to start school. start as in "the beginning of something". I have yet to seriously decide on a major (right now it's legal studies), and I am still not sure that it will truly make me better. Let me break this down real quick...
My salary is X; I have no degree, not even a real high school diploma, I have a GED and dropped out in 10th grade to have my second child. yeah... However, the Lord blessed me with a hunger for knowledge and I am definitely no dummy. My salary allows me to own a home, a car, pay bills on time, and my kids were able to go to a private school for all of their elementary years (with little to no help from Dad, it varies from time to time). I am truly blessed :) I don't make a whole lot, but it's enough for us.
Moving on to my decision to earn a degree. I made the decision based on several factors. 1. I wanted to give a good example to my children; if I can make it, anyone can. 2. I want to keep moving up in the world. 3. I want to keep learning. Those are the ones I can think of right off the top. I figured that financial aid would cut me a hefty check, being a single mom and all, right? wrong. Slowly but surely I have begun accumulating debt, but it's for a good cause tho, right? wrong, well maybe. So my current major will enable me to become a paralegal which, starting out, will only pay me about 8k more than what I make now. Math was never my favorite subject, but let's see: I'm going to school part-time for maybe 6 years out of my life(best case scenario), take out about 10k in loans each year for tuition, spend hundreds more on books and materials so that can make 8k more a year??? um, I don't think so. the Judge that I work with everyday keeps pressing me to go all out and go to law school. That's the only way that this thing will benefit me in the end. The flip side of that is that a million and one residents in the District have a law degree. womp, womp, womp.
So, to be or not to be (a college grad)?
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