College Degree – Worthwhile or Expensive Piece of Paper?

Let me start off by saying that this might come off as a rant but I promise you, there’s a point to this story. So please, reserve all your opinions and judgements until you read all the way through.

I’m 24 years old, and like a lot of people my age, I am unemployed and can never find a job. It’s a never ending struggle because I don’t have a college degree. I don’t have a college degree because I could never afford it due to private family reasons.

Long story short, my parents are middle class folks who have always wanted the very best for their children – the best schools, the best universities, the best of everything – even when it seems impossible to achieve. We don’t have the powerful last name, or the money and the “wasta”. And when life gets in the way, well, shit just hits the fan.

Though I’ve been to a lot of interviews – and by that I mean 2-3 job interviews a week in the past 6 months – I always get the same damn response, which is “you’re great” and “we love your work” and then the inevitable ”but” comes along “…but I’m sorry, we cannot hire you because you don’t have a degree”.

Are you kidding me? I mean, seriously, aside from the fact that I am taking online courses on psychology, journalism, marketing and art, doesn’t it matter that I am a talented and hard working individual who’s sole dream is to thrive in this world? Are you really telling me, that I don’t stand a chance, in my own country, to build a successful career because of a useless and over priced piece of paper?

Mind you, I have applied to different scholarships abroad, and though I have been accepted into multiple programs I was never actually able to take them because I didn’t have the back up cash in my bank account or the money to purchase the plane tickets. To add insult to injury, I have edited a published book and am currently writing my own. I have also been published in Paper.Li, a Swiss magazine among other online publications.

We non graduates aren’t just drop out losers with no aspirations and dreams. Some of us, like myself, are trying to work against the odds and the mere fact that we’re still standing, the fact that we’re still hoping, is an accomplishment by itself.

The irony is that I’m learning more from online courses and reading than I would have ever learned in college. Whether it’s a private school or a public school, you’re put through and forced to study useless information that will not make an ounce of difference in your career. Most college professors and universities require you to memorize a bunch of crap and just regurgitate it on a piece of paper. How it that educational?

Now, put that aside for a moment and consider this. People who actually do have a college degree are still unable to find a job. Why you may ask? Well, it’s because we live in a biased society that is controlled by powerful idiots who don’t give a damn about you if you don’t have the well known last name or money to pay your way up.

Does it matter you’re talented? No. Does it matter that you’re hardworking and starting from scratch? No. None of these things matter. They don’t matter because you don’t matter.

I guess what I am trying to say is that any idiot can graduate and acquire a degree but if you don’t have the money or the power, than you’ll be stuck in the trenches trying to scrape up a living and make something of yourself – and you’ll never get up there.

I’m constantly told to reach for the stars, to dream big and all that bullshit. I don’t need a pep talk and neither do you. I need a job.

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