In December of 2007, I successfully completed my BA in Elementary Education, and Graduated in the summer of 2008. What I thought would be a great opportunity to grow professionally as a human being has turned into Hell.
Since finishing College I've been unemployed. I only worked for two months as a teacher in an adult class. But right after work was over I was left with no job and no money for the rest of the year.
Worst of all, the process of working for the Department of Education has been painful to say the least. First I needed to get a certificate, and that was a long, arduous process. Then, I needed to submit my job application, and when I asked for information, the person working the line treated me with a lack of respect.
So I've been very depressed about it since. What pains me is that all of my peers and all of my teachers, professors and people I've worked with say that I have a lot of talent, wisdom and determination to do great things in life. But in the year since I've finished college I've done nothing and have nothing to show for it. It pained me knowing that my best friend who only has two years of college and a high school diploma is now owning his first business and has appeared on CNBC because of it, and me being the higher educated friend is doing absolutely nothing.
So after receiving a letter from my college I decided to do something about it and gather more info regarding my Master's degree. I told my counselor that time was not an issue whatsoever since I wasn't married, live right next door to the institution and could dedicate myself to my studies. The problem was money. I was able to pay through my associate's and BA thanks to a government program, but they don't work with Master's education.
So my counselor recommended me I get a student loan, and further educated me regarding payment. First, he said that if I get a student loan if after paying for a semester I have money left instead of wasting it I save it on an account, and only use it for my needs (like paper, ink, computer repair etc.). Once I was done with my studies I could take what I had saved and use it to pay off part of my debt. Even if it doesn't pay it off completely at the very least I will have a small debt rather than having a big one.
Also, in the event of not finding a job after college the bank can't force me to pay and will give me a year. Once I do find a job I can start payment, and then I can even pay it off completely.
Next are the classes. Its going to be a one year course, two classes per week (one friday and one saturday), leaving me the rest of the week to either have a small job or completely focus on my studies.
With my Master's I can work on all elementary levels, work on private schools and will look better on my resume than an associate's and a BA.
So with all of this in mind I decided to go for it! I start next month, and should be done sometime next year. Best of all, I will get a shiny gold medal at graduation! EEEEEH!
So long story short: I got tired of doing nothing, so I will do something, and that is getting a Master's and no one is going to stop me!
I am really proud of you! It's ironic that you wrote that right now, since my new-and-improved hand-written resume is sitting in my lap waiting to be typed, so I can get a job myself!