Hell has frozen over

I was in college for a very long time, way too long, really, mostly from a fear of the real world that turned out to be rather silly and a tendency to graduate during recessions, where going back to school seemed the only real option when I couldn't even find a job even in retail. I have a BA with three majors (History/Sociology/Classical Civilisation), one minor (Judaic Studies), and the Honours Programme (which is one of those 'Great Works' tracks), and a master's of science in Library Science. (I was one class short of a Linguistics major in undergraduate work. Phonological Analysis never worked into my schedule, all the time I was there. This has stuck in my craw for years. Then I gook a Government and Binding class (which so doesn't sound like linguistics, does it?) and nearly lost my mind, so I was okay with that.) It was the time working on a graduate degree in history that really racked up my loans, and sadly, I let a fear of oral defence keep me from getting that. Then there was being underemployed, part-time until fairly recently (and still part-time as a librarian), often working three jobs but never really getting anywhere. Even now, I am signed up on income-contingent for repayment because on the normal plan it would be more than half my take-home pay. Being a librarian doesn't pay that great. Being a part-time librarian makes it harder. But after years of deferments, forebearances, etc., etc., tonight I made my first voluntary (as in not garnished--that happened about several years ago for a month or so before I got it ironed out) payment to the US government for my student loans. I hit the 'submit' key and the world did not end. I guess that finally makes me an adult, taking responsibility for my past. Let the zombie apocalypse commence.

Now if I can just get a full-time job as a librarian before this one ends in 2015, I can keep paying on this, probably till I die. Moral of the story if you're contemplating college: get in and out quickly, don't be afraid of the real world, major in something that can get you a job, but round out with something you love, like the humanities as another major or minor so you learn to communicate in something other than tech- or business-speak. You can do that in four years. Really. And if you have to take a year off before school to 'find yourself', do it. That's what the Brits and Europeans often do, and it's considered normal. It's better than spending six years as and undergraduate and several majors before discovering you don't care for what you chose. It took having a rat chloroformed and dissected in front of me to get me off the science track (I'd been a biology and sociology major, thinking I'd go into oecology--that's why it took me five years to get my BA). If you go to graduate school, it's more costly, so get in, get out, get a mentor who will set goals and work with you to get you out. I loved my major professor, but our work methods were such that I was never encouraged to progress, and I needed that encouragement. I know one person who got a degree in Russian but towards the end of her major, she went to Russia and decided she hated the country, the people, the whole experience. But that's what she has her degree in, and then she worked as a graphic artist until the Great Recession, even though she really didn't have any background in that.

The point is, put some effort into finding what you want to do, what you'd love to do, but put in a good dose of reality, too, and do as much with grants and scholarships as you can. I actually got out of my undergraduate with a small loan burden because I had good scores in high school and got them. But if you can't, try to balance learning--which is the point of school--and marketability, taking as little loans as possible.