I have a bachelor’s in economics and a master’s in public administration.
Damn shame I can’t cash my diplomas in.
Every time I talk to young men about their futures, I urge them to learn a trade — and then read voraciously, especially history.
Everything I know comes from a lifetime of reading. I approached my college years as strictly fulfilling the requirements for a couple of sheepskins — neither of which gave me any wisdom, any character, any real-life experience.
As we used to say in the Army, it was just a matter of “getting my ticket punched.”
I’d sooner give a buck to a wino on the street than donate to either of my universities.
Don’t get the impression I’m bitter. College was strictly a business deal. They got their tuition, I did the coursework, I got my diplomas. No rite of passage, no expanding of my horizons, no encounters with great ideas.
Small world, I’m an International Economics major and an Air Force vet.
My story is pretty much the same as yours, a business deal, get a degree, didn’t matter in what, and you can enter the A.F. as an O-1.
I too have done most of my learning from what I have read on my own. There was a time I was reading a book weekly and probably 3 to 5 magazines a month on subject matter of interest. Gotta tell you...love e-readers, no issues of where to store the books after having read them.