Im in a crossroads in my life. Can you help me? I have no one to talk to....

Get back to college and get your degree so that you can live a life of non-poverty. Tell the Air force to stick it. They could care less about you and will send you to do their evil work.

a reply to: 5letters

Thats sucks man. I would keep with the airforce though. Take this time to prepare so when you finally get in you will excel.

As far as school, you said it yourself. If you are not ready you are not ready. Dont waste money on something you will not take advantage of. School is infinitely better than the armed forces, though if you need to figure stuff out, the armed forces can get you on the right tack and ahead of the game, IF you get something that promotes more than a "grunt can do attitude".

If you have to wait very long just take a few courses that you know you will do well in, that can count towards something you would possibly like in the future and above all that you will ENJOY.

IMO, As far as the armed forces, the air force next to the navy is the smart mans armed forces. You could learn skills that will be in many cases superior to a college education. It just depends how well you do in your tests and what vocation you are allowed to choose from within what ever branch you go for. The air force has generally good jobs that teach skills that are applicable outside of it.

BUT while you wait, DONT WASTE TIME. Train, learn, do things that challenge you. If someone was to ask what you did in the mean time whether you get into school again or the air force what would you like to tell them? Ask yourself that.

EDIT TO ADD:
DUDE! A hookah bar is the simplest thing....I know people who couldnt speak English and opened hookah bars....You just need a unique looking place with reasonable rent, price your bottle service to not be cheap so you attract ballers, yet not insane so you scare off the hookah crowd. (your greatest money maker is the bottle service NOT the hookah. The hookah just attracts the right crowd.) Security is cheap if you dont go nuts like some people. Dominicans LOVE hookah bars. Get some ethnic food on the menu that you can just fry up. Its so simple dude. Plantains, longaniza (sausage), and fries and junk....

Your bar doesnt have to have cocktails. In fact the simpler the better. You wont get a sophisticated crowd and having crazy crap you need to price accordingly will scare away your best customers.

You buy the hookahs, coals, mouth pieces and tobacco in whole sale and prepare them yourself (Its so easy to get 20 ready in 10 minutes if you just set yourself up right)....its so easy man. If thats what you want to do you will make allot of money and be with very chill people.

If you need some advice just let me know. I transformed a regular place into a Hookah bar after hours and have some good insight if you want it. The way you draw would save you SOO much money in decorating the place and would add a unique feel that would just thrust you into success. People like artists in that environment. You could make that your theme.....

Let me know.

Hold it down.

a reply to: 5letters

Easy enough: Do what makes YOU happy, not your father. You are 23 not 16. If you want college then you really should go because that's a great future for yourself - but be what YOU want to be!

a reply to: 5letters

Your art is beautiful to me. You might have an inflated sense of what it will take to start a hookah bar. If you redefine your limits a bit, you can develop your dreams into reality much more organically. Look into crowdsourcing opportunities in your community. Look into glass blowing. If you could make hookahs that beautiful, you could start a hookah production company, growing your business online and then financing your storefront through the sales. Develop a brain trust and network with other artists. You'd be surprised about all of the refundable tax credits that are available for grass roots creative enterprises. A friend of mine took advantage of tax credits here in PA designed to stimulate the movie industry even though he is not part of Hollywood. He is living comfortably through alternative avenues like this. Look into other cities, smaller cities. Lots of places are selling store frontage in the tens of thousands of dollars today. Don't be afraid to bloom in a small pot. You can always be transferred to a much larger vessel once your situation warrants and can support it. Don't let naysayers destroy your dreams. While they are busy casting shadows, many free beings are actively flourishing in the light.

Don't get so caught up in all the details and lose sight of why you are here in the first place...

Never allow anything to become bigger than your life’s purpose ~ Gloria Marie

Education = Indoctrination

War = Genocide

Not trying to dis' them, just be aware of what you are getting into...

Purpose... all of us have one

The key to happiness - focus your life around connecting with your PURPOSE...

NONE of us is here by accident

a reply to: 5letters


My advice: Do a collage in College, let Pops foot the bill. Don't ever get a loan to pay for it. Along the way keep Your eyes open for different things You'd like to do for "a job" later. You might just luck into something You "want" to do as opposed to "needing" to do..

If You LOVE what You do, You'll never truly 'work' at Your J O B. Get Your 'wants vs. needs' in order.

Continue to use Your "right" brain, same as You do Your art. That same 'energy' (Akasha) that provides the inspiration for Your work will also guide You to what You "need" (see above want v. need)
When You go to sleep for the night, picture YourSelf as doing Your work (want) providing Your job (need). You want to do Art? May as well let Art pay You.. Right before REM sleep is best..

namaste

a reply to: 5letters

Art in school.
Obviously that is the direction you should go.
Be an artist with a degree in art, and you will go far.
it is a path that you would enjoy,
keeps you in your drawings and stuff,
and if you can't make a living off of it,
you can teach it instead.



I am jealous, as I never went to collage (well I did, but never finished) and wish I had now.

Do you love to paint or draw? Perhaps you love doing graphic design or animation? Or maybe fashion is your passion? You may have thought about majoring in art but got scared off by the tales you've heard about starving artists. Fear not! Studying art either at an art school or at a traditional college will prepare you for a professional art career. Did you know that it can also prepare you for other occupations?

careerplanning.about.com...

Check out that link on careers in Art.

a reply to: JimNasium

If You do decide to go into the Air Force, at least go in as a College Grad. and be an officer. You don't want to be enlisted personnel and if anybody tells You different they are lying to You. By having 4 different recruiters You now have 4 different files, so when/if You do sign up instead of getting "Cool drone training in Hawaii due to Your video game scores" You end up in South Korea freezing Your tail looking North, or in Antarctica de-icing C-130s, because recruiter #3 never turned in Your records on time. Recruiters move up the ladder the more "sales" they do.

When they call back and start bothering You, and they will, tell them Your going to go the college route and in 4 years You'll be their "boss"

My daughter was considering Air Force for a bit. My older brother was AF for 8 years and gave her a pretty good piece of advice.

If joining the AF, pick a field that has actual civilian employment opportunities. He said there were 2. (he is no expert, there may e more idk) but the 2 were medical and air traffic control. He was atc for 8 years and got a job offer right after getting out.

as far as decision making.... flip a coin, heads college, tails AF.
If you are disappointed with the outcome you have your path.

a reply to: tinner07

Good advice...

I did the same in the Navy back in the 70's.

I reverse engineered the AFEE's test, scored real high, and got into a kick back Sonar job on a Frigate.

Put those skills to work after getting out and got into the X-ray field.

a reply to: 5letters
I agree with one of the people that replied, having been a former Active Army Recruiter myself something is wrong with this picture, it don't take 9 months or they did not tell you that you qualified for some reason IE, Law Violations, Medical history ect. Once someone committed to us it was less than two weeks they were sitting at the MEPS picking out a job and signing a contract.

Personnel would I do it all over again, Yes and NO, I loved the toys and the friends but after I got out I found out I was behind financially, personal toys, home etc.. GO TO SCHOOL there will be plenty of opportunities for you in civilian world.

Foot Note for you, I joined back in the 80's if I was smart I would of only served 4 years instead of 20, jobs were not easy to find back then.

The Armed Forces wants you to be a killer, that's what you're trained for although there's other titles and skill sets involved; you would immediately first day of basic be given a slew of vaccines, any one of which could Ef you up for the rest of your life. It's not worth it, especially for someone with an artistic mentality and prone to depression. A LOT of people wash out of basic training, and you probably would too unless you're a prime physical specimen AND very determined.

Your artwork is highly original and I wonder if there's a broader aspect to it besides what you posted and the avatar picture...

in any event, get together a portfolio of some of your work and make the rounds of any art galleries, art museums, art shows, hell, any place that sells art supplies and ASK THEIR OPINION. Just simply, hey, I need an opinion, would this possibly sell, or do I have talent here, or what? Make it friendly and nonthreatening, like a visit with a friend. At the galleries and museums, ask to talk to the curator but while you're there, chat up everyone from the receptionist to the guard standing around bored.

You'll make some connections, get some good advice and maybe someone will offer to put some of your work up on the walls and see if it sells. These guys are always looking for the next Van Gogh and there's something about your work that stops me in my tracks... dunno what it is, but, dayum!

Another thing to check into is, if there are coffee shops or other venues near you that would agree to put your stuff up for sale on their walls for a commission...? Everyone can use another cash flow and your work is definitely conversation-creating. A small sale can turn into more sales, turn into more and before you know it, you have your monthly cash flow covered and you're getting a name for yourself. Go on line, look into art shows in your area and ask to be included. You don't need to spend money on frames or anything.

Don't go to school just for the sake of being there, you'd be wasting your father's money. You owe him that; he's just worried and grasping at straws to hopefully get you started in life. You really need to do this yourself.

There's power in acting... thinking about it endlessly is depressing and makes you feel powerless. Go do! The first time is the hardest!

originally posted by: 5letters
I feel like im in a rut. A crossroads in life.I'm 23 and I have 70 credits in college and was studying engineering. my gpa in the first semesters were 3.5-3.0 but then it got down to 2.5 and 2.0. Now my cumulative is 2.5. I was super depressed. My dad said he wasn't going to pay for college anymore.

I didnt know what to do. I didnt like it. i felt and still feel like Im not mature enough to go to school so I decided I would go to the Air Force which my father was happy about but its been 9 months now waiting to get in and I havent gone to meps yet (which normally doesnt take that long). I did not go to school during that time because my school was very far away from me.

I had 4 recruiters in the process so all of them had to re-evaluate everything and now Im stuck with a newbie recruiter who made so many mistakes (not telling me to fill out certain forms) which elongated the process. Now I'm dealing with a problem that is out of my hands which I feel could take at least 2 months for it to be resolved so I can finally go to meps. I haven't gone to school for two semesters.

Now, my dad says hell pay all of my tuition expenses for college if I would go again. He felt bad that I was waiting. Should I just wait it out, or go back to school for another semester.

What kind of engineering are you doing? Mechanical engineering? Computer engineering?

The first thing is to ask yourself what is your dream job? To work in a startup? To become a self-employed consultant? An academic? The military?

Regardless of what career path you take, you are going to require continuous learning. College would seem the best route.

From my experience (I'm 45 and currently between contracts), doing something like geo-physics/geo-sciences, physics gives you the most career options. Make sure you get a mentor, flat-mates who want to study, or even just pay someone to get extra tuition.

a reply to: 5letters

At least you had a Dad that could afford to pay for his kid to go - I had to take the "suffer for it later" approach with loans.

Maybe engineering wasn't meant to be for you? I'll give you an example - One of the people I know was a really talented Trumpet player; not only could he play, but he knew about every brand of trumpet, which one's were good, and how much they were worth. Now, he's in college, but keep in mind - even if tuition were 25K for him, many of the instruments he sells are worth about $800-$2,000, so he could have it paid off in under a year.

Whatever you do - don't bother with the Air Force; especially not now. I say this because unless you are 101% committed to the country, there really isn't any going back.

In short: Finish the degree (or get one more suited to yourself - Drafting/Video Game Design/Story boarding maybe?), and if your dad offers to pay, then let him (but you should at least help; my dad risked quite a bit of money to get me into college, I paid him back by taking care of the loan payments once I had my first job...as I should).

-fossilera

Those who are speaking negatively about the military: well, 98% of the people who join the military don't join because they love America so much, they join because of the benefits. That's it.

Part of the reason why I want to join the military is because my dad is 72 aka he's old. I don't want him spending his money on me when he could have it for himself. He does have a lot of money in excess even if he pays for my college, but I just don't want to do that because I feel like I'll be using him......but at the same time, it is his job though as a father.

I was studying petroleum engineering.

Thank you so much for your responses. I equally review them over and over again to reassure and reevaluate myself.

a reply to: 5letters

I can empathise with you because I worry about my own future. One thing I have learned is that you don't need a degree in life to be successful in life.

What you might like to consider doing is first of all ask yourself is what are you good at followed by what would you like to do in life. These are the two most important questions you can ask.

Nepolian Hill wrote a book about this sort of thing. He said the most important thing you can have is desire. With sufficient desire nothing else is required because sufficient desire will provide the how. (necessity is the mother of invention.)

Perhaps you might like to consider reading Ishia Henkle's blog. He has very insightful things to say.

Im going back to school to study petroleum engineering. Thanks so much guys for your responses. You made a huge impact on my decision. Not joining the military no more.

Glad to hear you've come to a decision that didn't involve joining the military without a specific goal in doing so.

Some good advice has been given here but ultimately no one else is qualified to say where your life should go, not a parent and certainly not internet friends.

My main advice as someone who always tried to do what he thought he was supposed to because he felt his dreams were unrealistic is that you've got to be willing to take risks. If you stay on the main highway you will almost certainly never see an exit sign for the destination of your dreams.

School is good, but plenty of people ended up at jobs they hate that way, and you could find yourself right back in the same boat again in a few years trying to decide whether to apply your degree to some uninspiring job, or to become a military officer, or to (somehow) chase your real dreams.

To avoid that I recommend that you look at college as both a networking opportunity and a source of free time in which to put in the initial leg work towards your dreams. Look for art based scholarships or contests to supplement your finances, find an ambitious journalism student who wants to run a magazine and offer to do some graphic design work, find a hookah bar and offer to give them a good deal on decorative art in hopes of establishing a relationship from which you can learn about that business - I don't know exactly what you should be doing im just spitballing- my point is to put your passions into practice while you're not locked into the nine to five world.

You've got to come up with something to do that fires you up and see it thru, or you'll always be doing what you have to do instead. And I know how hard it is for some people to get fired up about anything when they lack momentum - again networking- interacting with friends who share your interests can give you a lot of momentum, and college is a great place to make those kinds of friends.

Back to school for you, finish your degree, throw in some side fine arts subjects if you are doing a bachelor.

You have done part of it, finish it a few years is nothing at this age, you will be surprised how fast it goes.

Treat the depression separately to the schooling. Put effort into health , exercise, counselling so the study comes easier.

Focus. and have fun.