Catrinac, I can totally relate to what you have stated.
I never put an emphasis on education while growing up.
My family never really encouraging me to get 'A' grades or even go to college. My grades suffered through high school and I regret a lot of the decisions that I have made in regards to education.
I floated around in life when I got out of high school, and soon realized that I needed to get a better education in order to live a better life. So, I put myself through college and got my degree. I am now en route to completing my Masters, which is something I never would have thought of doing just a few years ago.
Weird thing is, and I have mentioned this several times before here on this board, an education, especially a higher education, such as a Masters or PhD, is not something that is really prized here in Albuquerque and much of New Mexico.
It was a real culture shock when I moved from Burque to L.A., just how much and education means to people and how important it is to have one.
When competing for jobs out there, it is a dog-eat-dog world, and only the best survive. People of all races and ethnicities strive to get their kids in a prestigious academy at an early age so they can be prepared for college, which prepares them for the real world. The UC college system is among the best and most elite of the country, if not
the best. The average GPA for entering freshmen for Fall, 2002 at the University of California (UC), Los Angeles achieved an average grade point average (GPA) of 4.23.
At UC, San Diego, admitted freshmen had an average GPA of 4.03. Likewise, 87% of incoming freshman at California State University (CSU) campuses had at least a 3.0 GPA, which is different from the UC system.
Now,
that is a lot of competition and brain power.
People desire a higher education and it is more revered out there, and in places like New England and the east coast, than it is here in NM. A job opening in L.A. or San Francisco might have some of the brightest, most competitive minds from around the
world, with a higher degree from some of the most prestigious universities on the planet. If you tell people or employers here that you have a PhD, the reaction is
"so?", or, sometimes even worse.
In all my time living in the cities that I have lived in, I have never understood the attitudes of Burqueños and New Mexicans in regards to success, education, money & finance, and having a higher standard for one's self.
A lot of locals suffer from "fatalism" and "defeatism", which is a subject I explored in another post. It also seems like the more you want to succeed, the more people try to bring you down. And even the most modest form of success is met with contempt. In Spanish, we have a word for what this is called:
"envidias". And
that, along with fatalism and defeatism, is what is keeping the state down, and crime and hopelessness up.
Not that I think that I am 'better' than people, because I know that I am not. I most certainly have my faults.
However, I have sacrificed years of my life, time, and money to educate myself in order to better myself, my family, my community, my country, and my planet. I'd like to get something in return. After all, isn't that what an education is for???
I could have dropped out of high school like 50% of the state, and sat around smoking weed, getting drunk and DWI's, joined a gang, getting women pregnant out of wedlock, and end up in prison costing taxpayers money and causing families grief.
I know people who have done this. Heck, even some of my family members have done time.
I refuse to be that way. I refuse to lower my standards. I refuse to become another statistic. I choose to better myself through sacrifice, hard work, imagination, knowledge, creativity, and entrepreneurship.
So, I am sorry, but a college degree is not just another piece of paper.
It is a key to a prosperous future - a future of nearly unlimited potential and opportunity. It is a citation and commendation, stating that one single person made the sacrifice and effort to go through four, seven, even twelve years of schooling.
It is a testament to one's will, that they have the intestinal fortitude to go out alone, away from home, to start a new life, and endure a sometimes grueling and frightening life of homework, tests, labs, lectures, and dissertations, and meet and accept challenges they have not yet encountered, and faced those challenges and conquer them.
Every person has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
So, if someone wants to live their life without an education and work from job to job to job for menial pay, so be it. If one wants to be miserable throughout their life, so be it. If someone wants to be jealous or bitter and angry that someone actually had the audacity to take time and effort to educate themselves to have a good life, so be it. That is their decision. I've gone the other route, and let me tell you, it sucks.
I've been broke. I've been poor. I've had people get in my face and tell me off and try to make me miserable because I made something of myself. I've been threatened with physical violence because I 'sound smart'. I've lost friends and stopped contact with family members who have somehow gotten an evil seed planted in their head that I think I am better than they. Some people that I have never even met have done this to me.
I've also had money, lived in great neighborhoods, had rich friends, and great jobs. Let me tell you, there is no comparison.
It is all because of two things: attitude and education. It's as simple as that.
You have every right and opportunity to better yourself in this country, a country where there is nearly endless opportunity. Please do not deny me that same opportunity.
--BtK
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Money does buy happiness...but only up to a point
Growing as a person is ALWAYS a good thing.
