I dropped out of UC Merced 11 months ago, because of general apathy and my foolish notion that I could do no work and still succeed. So hopefully you can get some wisdom from my experiences. Oh and sorry in advance for the wall of text.
sir.rutthed said:
After six years of misery and aimless meandering through major programs, I've decided to quit school and persue writing. This isn't a "don't quite college or you're fucked" thread though, so I'd like some advice as to what I should do next. What does one do after dropping out? Anyone out there been in a similar situation? What did you do? I've already taken a year off from school before, but how is life different when you don't plan on going back?
There are two ways you can write. You can either put out dumb books that you write in a week with catch titles like 101 ways to say "I love you." That have mind numbingly stupid content but can earn you some easy(I guess?) money. Or you can try to write about things that interest you and write respectable books. For this path however unless you are extremely lucky you will have to work a second job(usually menial labor) and write nonstop with a huge amount of effort. And even if you are on the top 20 books released for an entire month, you will still only make about 30,000 $ for what will likely be 5 months work at least(and that's if you're lucky.)
Look at 90% of all sci fi movies, they get stars like Keanu Reeves, Matt Damon, Harrison Ford and are all based off Philip K Dick Books. Holy shit Philip K Dick must be a big deal and have made a lot of money while he was still alive(and yes Blade Runner was released while he was alive.) Well no, he actually was only able to survive by purchasing and eating dog food. Yes. He did that.
My point is that you can live and you can be an author, you might even make a far amount of money. But you have to write because it's your passion in life not because it's just something to do. When I write and work on novels, It's because I literally do not get tired while I'm doing it. I am so interested in the material that I can work nonstop without getting exhausted or bored.
What you have to do, is you have to find out what you want to do in life. For me, I meandered my way through high-school with a low C average, working just enough to stay afloat where grades are concerned. I went to community college after that and did the same thing taking lots of random classes though mostly history ones, without putting much effort into them. I started pulling my grades up the past two years though so I have a B average now(though with lots of Fs dragging me down.) I was able to transfer then to a University which fell through because I fell into old habits.
I received the news that I was being kicked out on Christmas evening, last year, nice huh? After which I lived with my parents for about 6 months, mostly playing video games and analyzing my life. And I finally came to a solution. While at Saddleback Community college, I had taken an awesome class on peace studies, which inspired me to become a pacifist and introduced me to an organization called the Nonviolent Peace Force. The aforementioned NVPF is a privately funded NGO that goes around the world promoting peace, often by inserting themselves unarmed into war-zones in between civilians and the armed military militias that want to kill those civilians. Which sounds insane at first until you understand the psychology behind nonviolence. It's a hard organization to get into but the pay is quite good and it's far less dangerous than serving in the military.
Because its hard to get into I need to have skills that would be useful to them, so I thought about career paths that are helpful that I can get at a community college. Which is how I found myself in an EMT program, at the above community college. I will get certified for EMT work in a little under a months time, and at that point I will apply for jobs at ambulance companies and hospitals and hopefully get a position as a trauma or psych tech in a hospital. Will take classes for another year and a half or so, and then apply to either the paramedic, nursing program or possibly try to become a physicians assistant. I will then get a job in the field and apply every year to the NVPF until I can get in.
So as a conclusion more applicable to you:
1)
You have to figure out what you want to do in life no matter how long it takes. I have a minor fear of needles and used to be so afraid of surgical practices what I had planned to simply cash in my chips if I ever needed major surgery, but I worked through it because I really want to help people however I can. So if its something you care about enough, you can work backwards. Try to think of what matters to you most in life and then develop your long term goals around achieving them. And don't be discouraged it they don't come to you right away, it took longer than most for me, but in the end I know that I will be happy with my choices, and that's what counts.
2)
Check into how many credits you have of what, and if you can, get an general ed associates degree. It will help you get jobs and so forth.
3)
Consider learning a trade at a trade school, it's usually quicker and can find a job easier. My family is huge on intellectualism, but we have veterinarians, mechanics and barbers in the family as well as computer scientists, marine biologists and PhD getting philosophers and engineers. My point is don't look down on certain career paths because you were hung up on the university 'ideal.'
4) This probably wont help you if you didn't put enough work in to get a degree(because they are going to require hard work from you.) But you can also
consider the military, while it obviously wouldn't be my path, I have a few good friends who went that path and are enjoying it. Much like the trade school path you can get into it right away and start working on your longer term goals.
Hopefully this was post was helpful and not too cumbersome that you didn't read it. Good luck with life, man.
