i'm supposed to choose my life path at 17? chyeah right

i talked to a friend tonight about our futures. we both went to college for 4 years (she went for 4 1/2, switched majors half way through) i'm contemplating an industry change, and she went back to school, only to quit again because she didn't know what to do.

then i realized that most of my college friends are absolutely exactly where they thought they would never be.

some had to move back in with their parents. i was in that boat and the only reason i moved out was because i wanted a dog. wasn't the smartest decision financially, but definitely the winner emotionally. i have friends who majored in public relations and mass communications and are working for citi group. i have friends who are still bartending to make ends meet.

my generation got the short end of the stick. as children, we were taught that we had to go to college to get a job that paid well. we were promised that we would get jobs immediately upon graduation, starting our journey to happily ever after.

that's really not what happened at all.

i want to know who mandated that if you want to go to college it has to be immediately after high school. why can't we be more like the europeans and spend some time backpacking across the world? it's like america collectively decided to be unhappiest place on earth. there was no war to draft our boys into and every girl was told she had to go to college, lest she become "just a housewife" and look what happened. a nation full of overeducated people and no jobs to give them. so overeducated that a huge chunk of them went onto post-graduate studies, further adding to what will be their uselessness.

don't get me wrong, i'm all for education. but doesn't it feel more and more like the investors and lenders tricked everyone into thinking they needed college, all so they could get paid? that they managed to convince people to ignore their heart? now the man who really wanted to be a mechanic and would've been great at it, is stuck wondering what the hell he's supposed to do with a philosophy degree and a minor in english lit.

i don't understand what's so wrong about that man being the mechanic he always wanted to be, but also is able to carry on a conversation about plato.

it's considered a waste of a mind. to be smart and have a customer service career.

but is it really? is the mind really wasted when it's happy doing something it loves, rather than just something it happens to be qualified for? exactly how far do/can you get in life with a degree that's essentially useless outside of elite circles? sure, you might know a bit more about greek and roman ruins than the average person, but that would just make you a pompous tour guide.