So Do I Have The Real Word Figured Out?

[Orange]

No not the TV show or the song that introduced us to John Mayer, but I have been doing a lot of thinking about the "real world" as this is the last summer before I enter College.

We go to school in order to help us figure out skills to get us by in the real world, and the real world will essentially boil down to using your talents and skills to work under somebody else and make somebody else rich. So for all the skills you learn, school is basically a door that'll lead you into a building to work for somebody else and be a slave to the grind, granted unless you were to go for management or something of the like; but if not you will be stuck working under somebody else.

We are persuaded by TV and other media outlets that some jobs are more socially acceptable and "right" than other ones, for example it's more acceptable and "right" to be in the medical field than to be involved in communications. So you go to school in a field you like and don't make a lot of money, and that makes you a failure compared to the Dr. down the street who makes an amazing salary. So I ask some people that are in the "real world", do I have the basic concept down or am I missing something?

I apologize for the rant, but I really, really want to be a musician and the whole idea of working under somebody else for the rest of my life just doesn't flow with me. I still plan on going to college to get something to fall back on, but the idea of a mundane job that is the same thing day after day just doesn't interest me. Again sorry if this post really doesn't make any sense, but about to enter college the idea of the "real world" is pretty overwhelming and stuff.

So the main question I have is, am I overblowing this whole thing or do I have the real world idea down pretty good? Thanks guys

[Cranjis McBasketball]

The real world is just like high school.

Only far less amusing.

There, now you know.

[Orange]

May 3, 2010 3:37:30 GMT -5 Cranjis McBasketball said:

The real world is just like high school.

Only far less amusing.

There, now you know.

Thank you ;D

I agree with you though, I've been around enough work enviornments to know that it is like high school.

[Stu]

Although there's a lot involving your career path, the real world also is full of good and bad involving your personal life and other necessities. Whether it's dealing with a girlfriend, or struggling to pay bills, there's a lot more to the real world than work. And you can't really prepare for it; you just need to deal first hand with whatever life throws at you and learn from it.

[EvilMasterBetty, Esq.]

College, in part, helps you learn what to do. I think you'll find that, for the most part, no one major or course of study is looked down upon in college. And I don't think many people believe that anyone who isn't a doctor or lawyer or some kind of executive is a failure. Those professions are respected, but that doesn't mean others are. If you do what you want and you're good at it, you'll get respect from those who are important. If someone dismisses you just because you're a musician and not a doctor, in the "real world" they're not worth your time. Just worry about making yourself happy first, then the rest will follow.

It may seem like musician isn't an "acceptable" way to make a living, but I don't think that is true. If your school offers some kind of music department, I would check it out. Expand your knowledge of music. Plus, if you start looking around you'll probably find friends who share that interest and you can start a band/group/whatever. You might be surprised what's out there.

Also, the kinds of options out there are ridiculous. Because you're not set yet in what you want, just keep an open mind and try to take classes in whatever sounds like something you'd enjoy. Don't try to go into medicine just because doctors are respected. Take a communications class (I personally loved the couple I took for my major). Take anthropology if that sounds cool. Do whatever until you find something.

You're only a failure if you give up on yourself and accept less than what you're capable of doing. If you do what you love and you're doing ok providing for yourself, then that's pretty good in most people's book. BTW, you don't need a huge salary to provide for yourself. I know it's cliche, but money doesn't buy happiness. It is true though.

[Orange]

May 3, 2010 3:47:51 GMT -5 EvilMasterBetty, Esq. said:

College, in part, helps you learn what to do. I think you'll find that, for the most part, no one major or course of study is looked down upon in college. And I don't think many people believe that anyone who isn't a doctor or lawyer or some kind of executive is a failure. Those professions are respected, but that doesn't mean others are. If you do what you want and you're good at it, you'll get respect from those who are important. If someone dismisses you just because you're a musician and not a doctor, in the "real world" they're not worth your time. Just worry about making yourself happy first, then the rest will follow.

It may seem like musician isn't an "acceptable" way to make a living, but I don't think that is true. If your school offers some kind of music department, I would check it out. Expand your knowledge of music. Plus, if you start looking around you'll probably find friends who share that interest and you can start a band/group/whatever. You might be surprised what's out there.

Also, the kinds of options out there are ridiculous. Because you're not set yet in what you want, just keep an open mind and try to take classes in whatever sounds like something you'd enjoy. Don't try to go into medicine just because doctors are respected. Take a communications class (I personally loved the couple I took for my major). Take anthropology if that sounds cool. Do whatever until you find something.

You're only a failure if you give up on yourself and accept less than what you're capable of doing. If you do what you love and you're doing ok providing for yourself, then that's pretty good in most people's book. BTW, you don't need a huge salary to provide for yourself. I know it's cliche, but money doesn't buy happiness. It is true though.

Yeah I'm close to having a band together, I just need a bassist and lead guitarist and we'll be set. I don't know just something about being involved in corporate America is not really something I want, I mean I look at all these famous musicians who went against the grain and did it on their own and that's what I want to be ya know? I want a profession that'll be exciting and different every day, and something I'll enjoy as well. I always here about people that go to work and they hate their job day after day and I just really don't want that.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

May 3, 2010 3:58:06 GMT -5 Orange said:

May 3, 2010 3:47:51 GMT -5 EvilMasterBetty, Esq. said:

College, in part, helps you learn what to do. I think you'll find that, for the most part, no one major or course of study is looked down upon in college. And I don't think many people believe that anyone who isn't a doctor or lawyer or some kind of executive is a failure. Those professions are respected, but that doesn't mean others are. If you do what you want and you're good at it, you'll get respect from those who are important. If someone dismisses you just because you're a musician and not a doctor, in the "real world" they're not worth your time. Just worry about making yourself happy first, then the rest will follow.

It may seem like musician isn't an "acceptable" way to make a living, but I don't think that is true. If your school offers some kind of music department, I would check it out. Expand your knowledge of music. Plus, if you start looking around you'll probably find friends who share that interest and you can start a band/group/whatever. You might be surprised what's out there.

Also, the kinds of options out there are ridiculous. Because you're not set yet in what you want, just keep an open mind and try to take classes in whatever sounds like something you'd enjoy. Don't try to go into medicine just because doctors are respected. Take a communications class (I personally loved the couple I took for my major). Take anthropology if that sounds cool. Do whatever until you find something.

You're only a failure if you give up on yourself and accept less than what you're capable of doing. If you do what you love and you're doing ok providing for yourself, then that's pretty good in most people's book. BTW, you don't need a huge salary to provide for yourself. I know it's cliche, but money doesn't buy happiness. It is true though.

Yeah I'm close to having a band together, I just need a bassist and lead guitarist and we'll be set. I don't know just something about being involved in corporate America is not really something I want, I mean I look at all these famous musicians who went against the grain and did it on their own and that's what I want to be ya know? I want a profession that'll be exciting and different every day, and something I'll enjoy as well. I always here about people that go to work and they hate their job day after day and I just really don't want that.

After comedian, rock stars are amongst the most well adjusted people on Earth.

Dreaming of being a rock star is fine, we all do it, it's just...unlikely.

[@TenaciousBe]

The first and only rule about the "real world"... bend over and take what's comin to ya. If you just embrace the fact that you have no hope, it'll slide in a little less painfully.

[sunwukong]

If by "real world" you mean being a wage slave in an office for forty years, then yes.

Thankfully, there's nothing saying anyone HAS to do that. Too many people settle for mediocrity in their lives.

[Back to being Cenanuff]

You think I'd be posting here if I had the answer for you?

[willywonka666]

Yea, but you don't have to work that way.

I was confronted with a situation a few years back, do what I love for less money, or do something I despised for much more. It was hard to decide, but I chose to do what I loved and I'm actually happy with my life.

One important word in "The Real World" is Success and while I don't have a lot of nice stuff that I could have had, I'm happy and that can lead to other avenues, and that's pretty damn successful in my book.