Advice for the young but slightly older.

Posted by: Spade

Advice for the young but slightly older. - 05/19/08 06:40 PM

Tomorrow I turn 20 years young.

Over the past few years my fragile reality and perception of "life" has been shattered more times than I care to count.

Which, while stressful, has lead me to be a much happier person then I use to be.

Looking at the world around me, I've been thinking what will bring happiness to me, and people around me?

I use to think that I wanted to have "power" so to speak, I however realize I just want to be happy. (I thought power brought happiness, however it looks to be the other way around).

College/Carrier is the next step for me, I currently have completed 35 credit hours in a community college.

I'm still living with my family, and realized I won't be able to complete college while sharing the same living quarters as them.

So whats next? A carrier/job, until I gain my independence and decide to go back to school.

Military is something I have leaned towards doing, Air Force being the branch I had planned to join. (I want to do para rescue)

That would be 4 years I would spend in the military, then another 4 if they decided they wanted me to come back.

With the amount of peoples who's contracts have been violated, I don't really trust the military that much, not to mention being a combat medic I might have to end up shooting someone, which really isn't appealing considering I don't agree with this war. (I live in USA).

It will still take time to get up to the physical requirements anyway, so until then:

A Job:

"Would you like fries with that?" No more fast food for me. I've worked in a few restaurants and have lost my taste for the type of work.

I want to do something physical, Like landscaping or construction, I know a few people who do construction, and I'm going to hit them up and see what they can tell me. I would need a job that paid well enough/enough hours I can support myself. If you guys have any suggestions about what type of outdoors/physical jobs would be good to get into, by all means let me know!



For those of you who have life experience and are willing to share, I look forward to you replies, thanks in advance.
Posted by: Stormdragon

Re: Advice for the young but slightly older. - 05/19/08 07:28 PM

You can try going into law enforcment as soon as you turn 21. About the military, the war was pretty stupid but probably not wrong, I mean taking out Saddam wasn't wrong really just a waste and there is still chaos but nonetheless he was a bad guy. If you had to kill people over there at least it's insurgents which isn't so bad imo. Unless you ride around in a tank or something. As Pararescue at least you'd be focused on saving people in trouble.
Posted by: MattJ

Re: Advice for the young but slightly older. - 05/19/08 08:20 PM

Learn a trade. Carpentry, electrical, automotive, etc. Always a good idea to have something to fall back on. Apperntices may not make a lot of money, but the job experience is worth a lot in itself.
Posted by: trevek

Re: Advice for the young but slightly older. - 05/20/08 07:01 AM

How about fire-fighter?

Something to think about is whether you might be able to use the skills from this job in later life.

When I joined the army I was intent on being a truck driver. Well, I got my class 3 licence but got no further. When I came out I decided I didn't want to drive trucks for a living. So, 3 years of potential free training in a number of specialist skills were wasted.
Posted by: RazorFoot

Re: Advice for the young but slightly older. - 05/20/08 02:09 PM

Quote:

Learn a trade. Carpentry, electrical, automotive, etc. Always a good idea to have something to fall back on. Apperntices may not make a lot of money, but the job experience is worth a lot in itself.




Got to agree. Regardless of what else you do, there will always be a need for these types of skills.
Posted by: Dereck

Re: Advice for the young but slightly older. - 05/20/08 06:19 PM

What to do with your life may also be geographically relative. In my area of Alberta, Canada it seems anything goes with especially the trades people doing well. With one of my dreams of re-applying to become a police office after my house is paid for in 3.1 years, the Edmonton City Police are screaming for new recruits especially those that have matured.

If you plan to live in a particular area then do some research to see if there is a need for your skills once you have finished schooling or for what you are going after. If you have no problems moving this will make things better however if you want to stay in a particular area then realize that you may be limited. Then of course you have to ask yourself do you want to be happy or do you want to be rich; you can be happy rich or happy with a medium based salary.

Being young and from my personal experience, don't hold out for dreams but chase them right away. Work hard for them so that when you obtain them they are the most fulfilling thing. If they don't work out then at least you are young enough to go after other things. Trust me, very difficult to chase dreams when older when you have family and financial commitments. I living this as have a few other friends and we can all agree we should have done things earlier.
Posted by: jeff_andle

Re: Advice for the young but slightly older. - 05/21/08 08:04 AM

Quote:

Tomorrow I turn 20 years young.

Military is something I have leaned towards doing, Air Force being the branch I had planned to join. (I want to do para rescue)

That would be 4 years I would spend in the military, then another 4 if they decided they wanted me to come back.

With the amount of peoples who's contracts have been violated, I don't really trust the military that much, not to mention being a combat medic I might have to end up shooting someone, which really isn't appealing considering I don't agree with this war. (I live in USA).

For those of you who have life experience and are willing to share, I look forward to you replies, thanks in advance.




Use the military to finish college NOW, keep doing MA to get in shape and hope that when your school time is up the country's entanglements make more sense.

Myself almost included, coming BACK to college is the hardest thing you might ever have to make yourself.

Unfortunately as a military man you are entitled to keep your opinion on that...

(self edited political opinion almost followed).