I frequent a bar stool on Saturday afternoons, in a less than reputable establishment. It is known locally for fights, trashy weddings (the bartender is an ordained minister and a great friend), and being so dark I have yet to ascertain the actual colors of the walls (in three years). I discovered the place after buying a glock handgun on the "bad-side" (meaning working class and not university related) of town. I fought off a psycho meth-head with my baseball bat breaking in the week before, needed something more efficient. Gotta love a part of town that has a strip-mall containing: a bar, a gun store, a hairdresser, and an old-school tailor.
I am by a huge margin, the patron with the highest level of education. My nickname there is actually doc. However, I am probably the least happy person there. The others all wonder why, with all my education and "opportunities", that I hate my state in life. Well, I tell them this: I earn a wage that qualifies me for food-stamps, and make extra money doing bullshit "consulting work" for local companies. I at one point sold blood plasma and chopped wood and brush at a local farm to make ends meet (and get free eggs and milk... yay). I spend at least half of my waking hours running data analysis on SPSS (think excel as a DMV employee with a real shitty attitude). In other words, I am an underemployed brain on a stick, used by the university to do "post-doctoral" research.
Anyway, back to the bar. These people work jobs like: mason, plumber, maintenance at a local apartment complex, tending said bar, auto mechanic, pizza chef, and garbage collection. None of these jobs need a third of the education I have. They work with their hands, and I "work" with my mind. They are happy, I am not. They create, fix, or do something tangible every day. I fuck around on a computer testing a usually common sense theory for the "noble" pursuit of empirical research. They do not have undischargeable student loan debt. They all make more money than me, even the fucking pizza cook, and I am fucking win the lottery lucky for not pursing this crap endeavor with debt.
The only hope I have now, is redeeming myself working for the education industry I have come to hate. So I can do the same thing, work low hours with a team of minions to do my work (students), because in terms of the overall job market, I am totally and completely fucked. Anytime you are applying for work and you are overeducated (be it J.D., MBA, M.A., M.S., Ph.D.) they will always ask two questions. One, why is this highly educated person applying for this job that is "beneath them." And the second, are these people going to leave the second they get a job that requires their education level.
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