Anyone else feel like their idealistic parents didn't prepare them for adulthood?
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Anonymous
| Parents can only teach so much. Adulthood is also time for learning on your own. Idealistic is better than pessimistic. |
Anonymous
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🎶 Your horniness is killing you...oooh baby, baby!!🎵
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Anonymous
| I told my children to decide what kind of lifestyle they wanted to live and the income that type of lifestyle would require. Based on that answer, to then choose the profession and college degree that would lead them to that result. I also told them to look at professions that would be in high demand and not disrupted by technology or that could be outsourced overseas. One child is now in medical school and the other one started their own IT service company and is making a killing. Life is all about choices and being informed. |
Anonymous
| I bet OP votes Democrat |
Anonymous
| This is fake. OP made it all up. |
Anonymous
| I am not a troll, and it's painful when people comment that I am. Please stop. I am a real person. |
Anonymous
PP here. I guess it was an extension in a way. I felt like I really grew up during those two years. I learned more about office politics than at any job and it served me well later. I did not end up in academia but adjuncted a few times because of having publications later. I got a government job. It's next to impossible to get a faculty job. I didn't want to be a "freeway flyer" with a bunch of adjunct jobs which nowadays is probably a best case scenario. The only way to teach college is to have significant publications and you can really only do that by being in a top MFA program to help you get published. (Of course there are exceptions but it's a waste of time to try to talk about all that.) MFAs are for connections with faculty, visiting agents and the friends you make who you network with throughout your lives. You supplement that with fellowships to Sewanee, Brradloaf, etc., for more connections. It's about relationships as much as talent and you must have enormous drive and some chutzpah. Even then, it's a tough road. But I'm glad I got my MFA because it was also a very fun and very creative time. You're young and it's fun to write and talk to others and go to parties. But I wouldn't look at it as a way into teaching creative writing as a career. After the MFA, you can get a nursing degree or counseling or something else. Be practical as well as idealistic. You sound like you actually are practical because you're being cautious. Practicality gets easier as you get older. But if you get into a great program and get money, why not? |
Anonymous
| ^^adding: the significant publications come years after graduation so no one walks into a creative writing job upon graduation. People teach composition as adjuncts for the most part if they do teach right after graduation. Most programs have you teach undergrads at the school. This gives you experience for after graduation. The most important thing in the long run are your publications, especially novels. |
Anonymous
| Listen to Supertramp’s “Logical” a few times |
Anonymous
| This happened to every GenXer. Reality Bites and selling out? The only reason most are okay are because they bought homes before 2000; late GenX are kind of screwed. |
Anonymous
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Focus on getting a full time career-type job and don't think about whether to apply to an MFA program until September. You said yourself they're a dead end.
You need enough money to support yourself and not burden your parents, who aren't in high paying jobs. The more they bail you out, the less they can save for retirement. Financial realism doesn't seem to be their strong Suite. If you're interested in nonprofits, you could target your job search. Marketing and communication roles sound like a good fit. Idealist and other job boards might be helpful. |
Anonymous
| Creative writing SLAC undergrad GenXer here; only reason I was ok career wise is that nonprofit & education jobs existed. Nonprofit jobs I had are almost certainly gone due to AI. Writing is not an AI proof skill. While I agree with PPs that this is likely a troll, for anyone reading this who thinks taking 2 years in the current moment (opportunity cost of not working is real & no one pointing this out) to pursue a field that is not only unlikely to provide secure $ footing but also not durable (case in point: thinking a part time internship in the dying field of journalism is a reasonable move), you are not being practical. Practical move would be to move home (solve dog problem either by rehoming dog or by figuring out mom's dog coexisting with yours), shut off lech prof, work p/t internship until you can find paid f/t role and/or figure out secure career path. Then, keep living at home while you get higher ed/training. Don't take out any more loans than absolutely necessary (& acknowledge forfeited income from taking 2 yrs to get a navel gazer degree). You're acting like a trust fund kid with no trust fund (which resembles my pathway but I would not recommend it - GenXers ability to rack up debt was much lower & our likelihood of being able to build equity via housing market much higher). Also had idealistic parents. Love them; they never ever acknowledge that "doing what you love & the $ will follow" was never practical but triply so for any generation beyond Silent/Boomers. |
Anonymous
| This is the perfect impersonation of a dumb a** liberal progressive white woman |
Anonymous
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I don'y know one person who has NOT had a shitty roommate. It's learning experience. You will do fine.
Just try to budget and maybe move to a cheaper area. |
Anonymous
| Law school. |