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Dec. 25, 2004 While sitting in an English Composition class waiting for the professor, the kid next to me said, “Why are you going to school? You’re pretty old?” I laughed and said, “I’m here for the same damn reason you’re here, trying to get my degree.” He looked at me in amazement and smiled. I smiled back. I aced the class. He didn’t. I began my college education at the age of forty-four, graduated with high distinction when I was forty-eight. I thought I was an old graduate until I met a lady in my same degree program that was in her late sixties. She graduated with highest distinction. She was a fantastic lady who had reached only a plateau in her life. She was heading for graduate school. This column is not an attempt to take some kind of ego trip. It is an attempt to tell those of you reading that it is never too late to get an education. You may say to yourself, “I don’t need an education. I have a job paying good bucks without and education.” I say good for you; keep that job. Don’t let it get away. You are one of the lucky ones. Many people today in America have lost their good paying jobs to foreign industries and cannot find jobs matching their previous pay scale. This article speaks to them. In 1990 I was complaining to my wife that I hated my job and I was getting paid peanuts. She asked my why I didn’t go back to school. I told her I was too old for such a project. She smiled and said, “Where will you be four years from now if you don’t go back to college?” I knew the answer. You know the answer. I would be at that same job and still hating it. Well, I still have a job that I don’t like, but I make a heck of a lot more money at it. If my job falls down the hill, I will be able to search for something similar and have that piece of paper (called a degree) that just might help me get my big toe into the door of opportunity. In other words, a college degree is a means for helping us find work or helping us improve our financial status by letting us get our foot into the door. A college degree is more than that. Why do people with degrees have a little better chance of getting a job than a non-degreed person? It certainly is not because the person with a degree is any smarter or has more experience than the person without a degree. I know because I was one of those non-degreed people. I think it’s because the person with a degree sacrificed and gave a piece of their life to earn that piece of paper. Many employers see that as a positive attribute, as a sign that this person will try harder on the job.
I realize that this is a delicate subject
because there are so many bright people out there
that know so darn much more than I do about
almost everything, and they are not degreed.
But, I only know that my BS degree from Indiana University has been a great help for me.
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