Test...test...test of my convictions

“Go to college and you can be successful like I am.” My father may not have used those exact words, but that was the gist of most of his life lessons growing up. Though I watched my father get up five days a week and go to a job that I knew he didn’t have any passion for, I still believed in the notion that he was successful. I, like many Americans of my generation, measured success by dollars in the bank and my father was doing well in that regard. So, how could I not believe him? Why would I not believe him?

My father grew up on a farm in rural South Dakota. He attended college for both his Bachelors and Masters degrees with a brief stint in the Army during the Vietnam War. He volunteered. He has convinced me all my life that hard work, loyalty, and education will get you places. After getting his Masters he was recruited to a fledgling software company started by an eccentric man with dreams of grandeur. The company asked him to move, he moved. And when he fell in love and started a family, he told them he wouldn’t anymore. He sacrificed some of his upward mobility in the company for his ideals about family. Another lesson he taught, family comes first. Though, his loyalty and dedication to the job still made him successful. I don’t know how much he made, but I know my brother and I never wanted for anything essential. He provided and it set an example that has always stuck with me. I knew that my father got an education, got a job, and through his strength of character and talent, was a success at that job. So when he instilled in us the important of going to college, we didn’t question it.

I guess you could call me a millennial, though I’m not sure I am. I was born in 1982, which means I was conscious enough to see how some folks struggled through the 80s. It also means I was in my most impressionable and formative years during the 90s. The Go-Go 90s. It was an economic boom that no one realized was one. In school we heard stories of people graduating college and being offered mid-six figure salaries just for having a degree. Companies were so desperate for employees that it didn’t even matter if you studied the field they operated in. I remember as a sophomore in high school hearing that someone’s brother, who had studied Medieval Literature, was getting a job with a tech firm starting out at $50,000 a year. Medieval Literature?! This furthered my belief and understanding that college would get me where I wanted to be…making money aka being successful.

So, knowing that I was going to go to college, I picked the most prestigious one within a limited driving distance of my home (family first). This private institution was nestled snugly in one of the most affluent suburbs of my home town. It was everything you’d expect of a private college. Small classes, affluent students, beautifully manicured campus and a steep sticker price were all on the list of amenities. My father, believing in the power of a college education was on board. He had started college funds for us and took out extra loans in his name to cover the expense. He made it happen partly because of his conviction that this would be good for me and partly because of my brother’s failed attempt at college. More on that at another time. So, I became a college student, one of only three out of my graduating class to attend that college. I was in a strange new place and I don’t deal with strange new places well.

My college experience was uneventful...