What the fuck am I doing here?

Imagine a poor college graduate in this day and age. The uncertainty. The broke-ness. As a generation, mine is completely FUCKED. As kids and teens, we were all told that the only way to achieve professional (and therein financial) success was to go to college.

So we went to college. We spent thousands of dollars, took out loans, lived like animals for four years in cramped, cinderblock dorms, with various strangers who slept three feet away from us (and always seemed to either snore, get drunk, or fuck when all we really wanted was to eat Ramen noodles and fall asleep on our wiry, metal futons). At the end of it all, we got the most expensive piece of paper in the world. Four years of our lives, summed up in a fucking piece of paper. Meanwhile, our friends who didn't go to college wracked up years of professional experience, learning trades or what have you.

We graduated, our hearts full of dreams, and our heads full of delusions of grandeur. I was supposed to be a famous film director. A classmate of mine was going to be a self-made millionaire by the age of 30. At least, that was the plan . . . Some of us flocked to cities, got cheap apartments in New York, or (for the daring) L.A. But those never seemed to last too long. Eventually, we all made the long march back to our parents houses. The party was over, our pockets were empty, and our profound ambitions had been trampled. We ended up taking the minimum wage jobs that were offered, our heads down in disgust and shame.

All the while, our friends who didn't go to college were actually doing something of worth with their lives. Some had joined the military, others had worked their way up the corporate ladder, others learning trades and joining unions. And they were making BANK. Or at least more than $8.00 an hour.

So the question is really, is it better to go to college? Or to get experience? I'm beginning to think it's the latter. You need experience to get a job, but you can't get experience without one. It's the Catch-22 of my generation. It's extremely hard these days to follow your dreams. At least if you ever want to make any money and get out of your parents' basement. I wish I had an answer. If I did, I'd probably be living my dreams instead of in my parents' house.