Lazy kids

[Monoriu]

In Hong Kong, we only have "early admission", not "gap year".  Most people complete 13 years of schooling before going to unversity.  But the best and the brightest fight tooth and nail for the several hundred places that allow students to be admitted after the 12th year.  It is considered a great honour.

[Jaron]

I sincerely hope you will die of a heart attack on your last day before retirement.

That happened to my grandfather. 

He is so insensitive.

[Slargos]

A friend of mine lost his father that way a couple of weeks ago.

He retired, came to help them renovate their appartment and 4 days after his retirement he suffered massive cardiac arrest and that was that.

[Caliga]

My grandfather died of a heart attack less than an hour after he retired, back in 1980. 

He came home from his last day of work, got undressed, and settled in to watch a Flyers game on TV upstairs while my grandmother was doing something or other downstairs.  She went upstairs a short while later to get changed for his retirement dinner, and found him dead in a chair with the game still on.

[Slargos]

My grandfather died of a heart attack less than an hour after he retired, back in 1980. 

He came home from his last day of work, got undressed, and settled in to watch a Flyers game on TV upstairs while my grandmother was doing something or other downstairs.  She went upstairs a short while later to get changed for his retirement dinner, and found him dead in a chair with the game still on.

You know, I recall the feeling I had when I graduated from high school. A general sense of loss and lack of direction, coupled with the realization that a part of my life was over and that I would probably never see most of those people I spent the last 12 years with again. It was pretty unsettling.

I can only imagine what it feels like for a person who's worked hard his entire life, perhaps at the same workplace for the previous 40 years and suddenly doesn't have anywhere to go in the morning.

(Possibly added to this, the realization that he will now have to listen to his nagging wife 24/7.  )

[Darth Wagtaros]

A question to Mono, Wag and all the others that talk about having a clear plan and a path, and optimizing their educational choices by whatever is "in demand" etc.

Are you happy in your life? Are you satisfied? Fulfilled? Or do you wake up in the morning considering whether to go to another day of drudgery or just put a bullet in your brain and be done with all of it?

Just curious.

I have no clear path.  That's why I value it in others Marty.

[Slargos]

A question to Mono, Wag and all the others that talk about having a clear plan and a path, and optimizing their educational choices by whatever is "in demand" etc.

Are you happy in your life? Are you satisfied? Fulfilled? Or do you wake up in the morning considering whether to go to another day of drudgery or just put a bullet in your brain and be done with all of it?

Just curious.

Yeah, right. 

Just "curious".

There are no statements in that post.

Only questions.

...

[Monoriu]

A question to Mono, Wag and all the others that talk about having a clear plan and a path, and optimizing their educational choices by whatever is "in demand" etc.

Are you happy in your life? Are you satisfied? Fulfilled? Or do you wake up in the morning considering whether to go to another day of drudgery or just put a bullet in your brain and be done with all of it?

Just curious.

Yeah, right. 

Just "curious".

There are no statements in that post.

Only questions.

...

What I don't understand is - is no plan better than having a plan?  Is doing what is "not in demand" better than doing what is "in demand"?  Is having no idea of what to do in life better than having an idea, even if that idea is not very grand? 

[Jaron]

A question to Mono, Wag and all the others that talk about having a clear plan and a path, and optimizing their educational choices by whatever is "in demand" etc.

Are you happy in your life? Are you satisfied? Fulfilled? Or do you wake up in the morning considering whether to go to another day of drudgery or just put a bullet in your brain and be done with all of it?

Just curious.

Yeah, right. 

Just "curious".

There are no statements in that post.

Only questions.

...

What I don't understand is - is no plan better than having a plan?  Is doing what is "not in demand" better than doing what is "in demand"?  Is having no idea of what to do in life better than having an idea, even if that idea is not very grand?

Sometimes, my dear Chinaman..

It is better to wander than to walk.

All the best laid plans lead to hell.

An idea for the ages.

[Darth Wagtaros]

A question to Mono, Wag and all the others that talk about having a clear plan and a path, and optimizing their educational choices by whatever is "in demand" etc.

Are you happy in your life? Are you satisfied? Fulfilled? Or do you wake up in the morning considering whether to go to another day of drudgery or just put a bullet in your brain and be done with all of it?

Just curious.

Yeah, right. 

Just "curious".

There are no statements in that post.

Only questions.

...

What I don't understand is - is no plan better than having a plan?  Is doing what is "not in demand" better than doing what is "in demand"?  Is having no idea of what to do in life better than having an idea, even if that idea is not very grand?

Sometimes, my dear Chinaman..

It is better to wander than to walk.

All the best laid plans lead to hell.

An idea for the ages.

Cease thy Monny baiting. 

[PDH]

Maybe the problem is that we, everyone of us, are supposed to figure out what we are SUPPOSED to do.  There is some magical career path, something out there that is going to click within us it is all better.

Well, working is a way of earning money to survive, sometimes it is the shits, sometimes not so much.  The problem of waiting until we find that magic thing is that it is not real for many people.  Have go serve fries for a while, or bus tables, or work in an old-folks home...surviving is a wonderful way to motivate.

[Valmy]

Hey he should be happy she at last graduated from college.

[Monoriu]

Sometimes, my dear Chinaman..

It is better to wander than to walk.

All the best laid plans lead to hell.

An idea for the ages.

I understand the need to be flexible.  I was trained as an accountant.  I switched career path before trying my luck in any accounting firm. 

-I want a job and I am prepared to work in these 15 fields is ok.
-I don't know what I want to do and I am just going to party/stay home/surf the net all day is not ok. 

[crazy canuck]

I was sitting down to dinner with a 47-year-old colleague the other day, and he asked me what to do with his daughter. She has no goals. He and his wife always had to wake her up and drag her out of bed to go to high school, and in college, she waffled between majors until she had to follow through with Political Science. Now, she is freshly graduated and does not know what do, but perhaps go to graduate school "just because". He refuses to pay for it when she does not have a clear life objective.

Haven't read the thread but this strikes me as the description of a lot of the people I knew going through school.   I was always just a bit suspicious of the folks that knew exactly what they wanted to do.  I thought it was more like their parents knew exactly what they wanted their kids to do and the kids went along with it.

In other words, if someone has a clear life objective at that age, it is likely not their own objective.

[crazy canuck]

...surviving is a wonderful way to motivate.

Agreed.  Working on a sod farm gave me all the motivation I needed to figure out a better way to survive.