adults 40+ please read

Discussion in 'Hippies' started by iamtigerpaw, Mar 17, 2012.

  1. GardenGuy

    GardenGuy Senior Member

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    Funny thing about math: if you don't use it, you lose it.
    Some college degrees are based on knowing it and knowing it well.
    So if that is your circumstance, finishing your degree before you forget the stuff is a very good idea.

    If your body is getting torn up from football injuries, I perfectly understand that you may need to seriously consider finding another way to finish the degree. How much longer do you need? A semester? Three years? It makes a difference.

    If you have never had a job, working for people in retail or warehouse is a great jolt of reality. Lots of folks have no skills and no other options. You take a lot of crap from the public and managers and coworkers and you just have to learn to suck it up and not come back with a smart remark that could get you fired, no matter how much the other guy richly deserves being told off. While I don't want you to be so burdened with work that your grades slip, being even a little more self-sufficient is great for your self-esteem and helps you in many other ways: time management, setting priorities, etc.

    I think the education provided by working a regular job is so important that I can see why a lot of companies just don't want to even interview someone who has never worked. Internships are great if you can get them. Volunteer work with causes you believe in can be just as good as paid work and it is a great motivator, helping you keep a good attitude.
    There are so many disillusioned slackers out there, and we can all become one if we are not very careful to keep our vision and goals in sight.
    And yeah, if you can swing it, backpacking in the summer is a great way to reboot your brain and get your mind onto the things that matter in life.

    One of my relatives lived in small town USA and moved to Europe after he graduated and worked for a couple of years over there. He learned a language like I could never hope to learn back here in the states and he is so much culturally richer and wiser a person than he was before.

    As for the wisdom of moving to Eureka, CA. I would ignore the people that tell you not to even try it. If you have job skills and find work, then great! extend your stay and see the land, meet people and grow personally.
    The secret to trying new things is to try really really hard because you have several strikes against you: you are very young, no job history and are from out of town. If you do the best sales job you've ever done, you might find work against all these odds.
    The other secret to trying new things is to know when to drop an idea when it isn't working, while you still have a way of going back home and picking up where you left off.
     
  2. iamtigerpaw

    iamtigerpaw Member

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    I respect the fact that you took the time to read my other posts on this forum.. too many people are telling me to 'finish the free schooling' but that is no longer an option for me. i've already completed 2 years, so when i go back, probably at HSU, i'll need to know exactly what it is i want to do because i won't have any time to waste.

    and yes, I'm working a warehouse job now and it was a real jolt of reality. they pay is great but they make you earn every cent.
     
  3. newforest

    newforest Guest

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    I skipped all of the responses.

    I loved my grandparents and I miss them. I never lived very close to them, so I didn't get to spend much time with them ever. I wish I could have, and learned more from them and known them better. Maybe you grew up just down the road from them and have known them well all your life, so things could be different for you, and you would have to weight all that for yourself.

    You have to do something in life to support yourself. Of course, there is the option of wandering the world with just a bowl and spoon as the most dedicated of dedicated Buddhist monks attempt, but that is quite a choice to make. Otherwise, you have to do something to feed yourself. In my opinion, a key to happiness is to do something you love. If you are doing it regardless of pay (high or low), you will be happy. The thing is, at 20 years old you might not know what that is. College is a great place to possibly discover something you love.

    A great secret to College that I wish I would have figured out earlier, is that for the most part you don't have to be enrolled in a class to check it out. OK, they might not let you just hang out in some highly technical lab class with just 10 other students. But the lecture type courses, you can just walk right in, sit down and absorb. Maybe doing that you will luck into a subject you really like.

    Walking away from College is a big decision. I have over 100 credits but never graduated, but I got lucky and discovered something I love to do (totally unrelated though). Sometimes though, I wish I had a College degree....they are very nice useful things to have.
     
  4. drumminmama

    drumminmama Super Moderator Lifetime Supporter

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    Garden guy, your info says you are in Georgia.
    I was in and around Eureka a few months ago, watching all the kids panhandle. Saw very few jobs available, even in the weed world.
    Arcata was worse, but if I assume a few of the panhandlers were also students (classes were in session) just harassing folks and didn't need the "spare" change, it was still a lot of edge of the continent blues going on.
    People on the way to Oregon, on the way to the Bay or LA.

    Word from up north is it has gotten worse. The fall crop had too much rain at the end. Fewer trimmers needed. Some didn't get paid what they were promised, or growers charged all kinds of ridiculous room and board fees.

    Hey, but the Jacks won a couple football games.

    The state university system in California ( different from the California system of UC Berkeley, Davis, Santa Cruz, LA and such) is surviving, although budget cuts are deep.

    What do you want to do in your heart of hearts for a living? What feeds your soul as well as your belly?
     
  5. Reverand JC

    Reverand JC Willy Fuckin' Wonka

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    Well I can tell you that the unemployment rate in the Bay Area is about 10%. Incidentally the sales tax is about 7%. Going rate on a studio apartment is about $1500 a month. The good news is that in Berkeley there is rent control so you can find a decent but small apartment cheap but they are few and far between.

    Stay Brown,
    Rev J
     
  6. drumminmama

    drumminmama Super Moderator Lifetime Supporter

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    Huh. I have a 2-1 duplex in not so scary Oakland at $1300. Not quite laid out for two roomies, but a couple needing a nursery or office it is OK.

    I do know the landlord wanted to raise the rent between the previous renter and us, but we were in a position to negotiate, as we took it without clean out and there were no expenses just for our move in.
    Something to be said for no carpet.
     
  7. GardenGuy

    GardenGuy Senior Member

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    drumminmama,

    We have one of the worst employment rates in the nation. I have seen panhandlers in parts of Atlanta and Macon. They hang out in the library and ride the elevator with you asking for money until you get to the next floor. They sit in stair wells, they are at exit ramps on the freeways and gas stations.

    I am not saying that our friend will find a job, but he is at a point in life where pulling up stakes is not as crazy as it sounds to someone in his/her middle years with mortgage and other obligations. if he accumulates enough money to go out there for a couple of weeks, he could really hit the streets looking for work and if he finds it, he stays, if he doesn't he goes home.

    When I was in my early 20's, I moved west, put everything I owned in a car except for a few keepsakes at my parents house. I drove west until my car broke down and I got it fixed and kept going west.
    I camped along the way. By the 4th day, I was deep in the desert and I found work within a few days. I made that place my home and explored the desert. I fell in love a couple of times, lived on the cheap with roommates, improved my Spanish, made money, went to college and worked a lot and had lots of fun too.

    I even went to So. Cal. for a few days and stayed in youth hostels and rode the bus everywhere it went and walked where it didn't go. I had a few connections out there and it made life easier. I met up with an old friend and also stayed on couches with cousins for a few days in the Bay area.
    I didn't let my poverty stop me from seeing the world. I just had to do it my own way.

    When I got too homesick, I turned my car back East and went back the way I came. I will never regret the experience.

    Our friend's experience will be different, but there's enough similarities between what he is attempting and what I achieved that I think it is worth a try.
     
  8. iamtigerpaw

    iamtigerpaw Member

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    Going west is really the only thing keeping my mind at peace right now. Im so adamant about going and my excitement for just the experience of it all is through the roof. I've been working my ass off these last few weeks saving most of my money just spending it on the bare minimum of necessities.

    I know that when I get out there it could be a struggle to find a job, which is why I'm saving up now, again, I'm going to no. cal so i know rent won't be $1500 and furthermore i'll be sharing an apartment if not then a room.

    I'll find my passion soon enough, "that passion that will feed my heart and my belly".. for now, I just have to go.
     
  9. drumminmama

    drumminmama Super Moderator Lifetime Supporter

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    Very good points, garden guy!

    Tiger paw, how about just traveling, rather than moving, then?
     
  10. yarapario

    yarapario Village Elder

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    Hey Tiger, having read your posts and responses as well as lots of the posts from other folks I come to this conclusion. You need to follow your heart. You might wind up broke, you might do just fine...I think the important thing is that you have the "itch" to move, to go there and thats pretty much what you need to do. If you don't you may end up being up being pissed off and miserable thinking about what you missed.

    It's not like you're going to a war zone or some place where wild beasts are gonna have you for lunch. You are feeling a need to do this and you're young, no dependents and no real schedule. Fuck it...go. Regardless of how it works out it will be a learning experience for you. Have fun and send a postcard.
     
  11. iamtigerpaw

    iamtigerpaw Member

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    :auto: .. going!

    thanks guys
     
  12. machinist

    machinist Banned Lifetime Supporter

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    bon voyage
     
  13. FritzDaKatx2

    FritzDaKatx2 Vinegar Taster

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    Anything can be a regret or a learning experience to you, it's all in how you handle what you're given as a results of your actions.

    Most of my life in fact.

    Move as whatever spirit moves you, moves you. :2thumbsup:
     
  14. yarapario

    yarapario Village Elder

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    ps; have fun, remain flexible, smile frequently
     
  15. iamtigerpaw

    iamtigerpaw Member

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    will do my friend!
     
  16. Spectacles

    Spectacles My life is a tapestry Lifetime Supporter

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    Best wishes on your journey.

    It took me 30 years to graduate college. I started in 1968 and had one and a half years completed. Then got a job at Cornell University and got a few more classes on my transcript. Worked for many more years at a wide assortment of jobs. Then when I moved here (1990) I got a job at the university. One of the benefits of working full time was free tuition to take two classes a semester. It was hard but I did finally graduate December 1997.

    I ended up retiring from the same job. It always bothered me that I was not getting better jobs because I lacked the degree. I think that I just had to prove it to myself that I could do it. I graduated with a double major and earned Phi Beta Kappa. I think my Mom was the most proud of my accomplishment.
     
  17. YoMama

    YoMama Member

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    I have found that if you are not happy where you are moving is not likely to change it. First find happiness within and you will make better choices.

    I personally hope you finish school and then if you want to move to California you may have a better chance of making a living. As cool as California is you still need money.
     
  18. NoxiousGas

    NoxiousGas Old Fart

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    Yup, remember, no matter where ya go, there you are.

    don't become a "greener"
     
  19. iamtigerpaw

    iamtigerpaw Member

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    That definitely isn't my goal, nor is it my destiny. Although im sure i will be overwhelmed by the "greenery" i do have goals in life and i'll be sure not to lose sight of them when i get there!
     
  20. jaredfelix

    jaredfelix Namaste ॐ

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    good luck pal and have lots of fun!! Enjoy the sights while you can =]
     

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