Difficult path decisions

[Sijuki]

Alright. I know I have talked about such things with a few of you, but here I am. I am in basically the same place I have been for a while. But I feel an urgent call for change. I always promote drastic changes in other peoples lives, but find it is somewhat difficult to just completely skew my life path all over the grid. I think a lot of it has to do with my parents. They view things in the traditional fashion. I have always fel the urge to be crazy and go off into the great unknown. I feel right now it may be the only way to succeed.

Here is my current situation. I am between jobs right now. I have had a couple weeks off, and have a couple more left before my job starts. It's an alright job, pays the bills, but is only contract work and is limited in my growth potential, and is not in my career field of choice. Working this job will not really move me towards any of my goals but at a snails pace.

Seeing as I have yet to finish college, I don't have a degree. So I can really only market myself based on my experience. Which is Retail and Automotive Testing.

My options before me are:

#1 I have an application to the "New York Film Academy" that I am going to fill out and send in, with hopes of being acceptted. In which case, my parents will have to pay for the school. (which is $18k/yr) Being in NYC, I will hae to move somewhere there, thinking closer to Philly. With this move, I will need to be able to find a job that I can make $25k/yr at to survive. Which could become a problem.

#2 I could delay school even longer and just move elsewhere. I am all about no caring about anything, but my car loan is guaranteed by my mother, so I can't just screw her over. I also have two land payments to make. These are the things that right now are inhibiting my growth.

#3 Just deal with my shit and take the responsibility and work whatever jobs I can find and stay here in the D until I manage to pay everything off and then try to follow through.

Not to mention I have tons of shit I need to get rid of then.

Thanks for listening to my rant, and any suggestions are appreciated.

[Diorama]

okay damn that's depressing sij. where does travelling fit into this?? I thought u were heading out in a year or two? How much in debt are you? If I were you I would prob work two jobs until all of the shit was paid off (if it could be paid off within a couple years) and then I would take off to travel or live elsewhere. The worst possible thing is to have some debt hanging over your head. Don't worry the misery will end soon enough!

[ChasinJason1313]

If I were you, I'd check out and exhaust every last possible scholarship and/or gov't subsidized loan there is out there. A good education will pay off in the end. I have my bachelors and I feel like I've accomplished nothing. I feel like I need a ph.d to validate myself. While this is just me ranting, the fact is , you need a BA or BS in this world. So suck it up and finish school, cuz if you find a reason to put it off now, you'll find reasons for the rest of your life.

Get it out of the way. There is plenty of free money floating aroud out there. As long as you're not a dependent, you're probably "officially" in poverty, which is good if you want to qualify for scholarships or loans. Go to your local bookstore and take a peek at a scholarship...They're stupid when it comes to how much free money there is out there. If your name is Smith, there's probably a scholarship that pays you for being named smith...check it out

Good luck brother, let me know how it goes

[joanofarc]

a major step toward total freedom is becoming debt free. i think you should stay living at home, which i'm assuming is free - and bust your ass so hard! work and work until you can pay off all of your debt... then start doing shit. as long as you're confident that you can stay focused on your educational goals through the years (if it will take that long, no idea what your debt is) - you can jump into college later. i worked at this bike shop for a while, and my boss was this 28 y/o young woman and she was just in her second year of community college - getting straight a's and scholarships and all this shit. she's at sdsu right now in a fast track program for her phd and she's one of the top students in her field... yes, she was a mensa member to begin with, but even still - age ain't nothing but a number... if you really want something bad enough, you'll get it no matter when in your life. pay off that debt, sij - fill in the time with little 3-day trips to soothe your soul in between, and wait for the day when you can actually pocket the majority of your earnings instead of paying it away.

[Somnambulation]

What kind of land do you own? Mabye you should sell if you aren't profeiting from it and there is no prospect in the near future of profeiting from it. Of course land is an asset that you can borrow against if another good investment comes along.

[space virgin]

I'm with joan... pay off your debt now, then go back to school. Depending how deep you're in you might be able to dig your way out fairly quickly, then you can start off school with a clean slate. and jw is right-- check out EVERY SINGLE SCHOLARSHIP/GRANT that you can possibly think of, and go for education loans after that.

Believe me, you will feel a lot better after you get the debt paid off! Good luck, we're pullin' for ya!!