I’m trying to commit to when I said that I’m going to try to be more of a part of this place.

I hope that everyone’s doing pretty much alright. If something is askew, this is the place to check in. If things are going well, it’d be helpful to those who are struggling to hear how things are going well.

I’d like to start with some good news about myself and how I’ve had to overcome a lot of struggle personally in my time. Maybe those who are struggling or having a bad day will feel better to see that if a nutball like me can do OK there’s always hope.  :nannah:

As for me, I might finally be about to take a major step in what will hopefully be a positive direction in life. I have an Associate’s degree from college, but I never ended up transferring into a state university. I originally wanted to become an English teacher, but my old man was a teacher in high school, which is the grade level I wanted to teach at. In our state, they started changing all sorts of rules and I kept hearing from him and other teachers how much worse it was getting. The regulations were getting in the way of how they wanted to teach. It started to become "You have to teach to get the kids to pass the test, and we’re going to have people sit in on your classes who’ve never met you and rate you, and those ratings can hurt your career. Oh and now you’ll be lucky to get a pension and you’ll probably never get tenured, either."

My father didn’t want to retire at all because he loved what he did, but all of that caused him to quit early. Now it’s gotten even worse since then. He is also a skilled tradesman and that’s what he used to teach: Industrial arts. He’s always done well for himself because of those practical skills and I kind of grew up seeing that.

Also, once I graduated, which took me a while — I was going part-time to classes and working part-time, it was around the time when people who had 4-year BA degrees were struggling to find jobs that paid decently and offered benefits. It was when it was becoming quite clear that "Go to college and be successful" wasn’t true anymore in the USA. I’m very fortunate that my father was willing to pay for my Associate’s, but then I was looking at having to apply for financial aid, spend at least another 2+ years going nearly full time, plus working part time, and end up multiple 10’s of thousands in debt with shitty loans that would rape me….and all for what? NO guaranteed job, it turns out. I passed on that.

I’ve also struggled with my own personal issues that I’ve slowly had to come to terms with. Bipolar disorder was a major thing. Thank goodness for modern treatment and medications that actually work. That’s a tough thing to reckon with, mental illness is, but I’ve been doing great for many years now and I think as long as I take care of myself I’ll do just fine. Unfortunately, back when I was under another user name on some old forums when that mental illness hit, I turned into a major jerk to some people, but it got better over time.

The good news is that I’ve been taking very good care of myself. I’ve continued to read in the news how nobody is going into skilled labor. Going into the electrical trades has interested me more and more over the years. They’re paying decent money and the jobs are there. Oh boy they can’t fill enough jobs for skilled labor. They’re paying more for those jobs now, too. People need to fix the stuff that the world needs to keep running and people want their security systems, server rooms, fire alarms, solar panels, satellite TV, and broadband internet installed, plus home entertainment theaters set up. People still have to maintain the power lines and everything.

I may finally be starting to go to a technical/vocational college that has an amazing reputation and does very well with job placement. With the loans I’d be committing to I’d only be borrowing a few thousand and the course is one year full-time. I’m practically guaranteed a decent job if I keep my GPA up there.

This could really be a way for me to start getting out on my own after all I’ve been through. I can really see myself going into the electrical trades. I’ve always loved messing around with the innards of my computers and fixing and upgrading stuff. I’ve also learned that I’d rather be doing something working with my hands that will be in demand for the foreseeable future. Out of pocket the entire cost of school before I have to repay a few thousand in loans would be less than $2,000.00 for everything because I never applied for financial aid before. The loans are something I can actually pay back in a reasonable time, too.

So how YOU DOIN’?