Why Did I Go To College?

I ask myself this question more and more often these days. Why DID I go to college? I have a Bachelor of Science degree, but it's never done me any good. Any of the skills I've used to get and keep a job have been ones I taught myself. I'm still earning ridiculously low wages in my "real jobs, " and the only time I earn halfway decent money is when I freelance, again using skills that I, for the most part, taught myself (or learned in Continuing Education programs AFTER I graduated from college.) In fact, the only thing college ever did for me was rack up tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt, that I basically have to win the lottery or die to get rid of.

So why did I do it? Apparently there have been TV shows in recent years talking about how college is one of the "greatest scams" in history. Sure, there are the lucky few who go through college, get advanced degrees, and go on to hold prestigious jobs that pay six-figure incomes or more. Then there's the other 95-98% of the population.

If I could go back in time, and "do it all again," I really think I'd skip college, and just take certification courses for the skills I wanted to learn. That way, I wouldn't have wasted the majority of my youth, and I would be able to live a more enjoyable life, free from the majority of debt that I have since accrued thanks to my student loans.

Or, if I could regress back to the age of 18 or so, I'd go back to college with the current day offerings (since there was nothing really that interested me back when I was in college), and follow a course of study that I DO have an interest in, and that would hopefully earn me a position in the modern working world. A career, not just a job to pay the bills, which is all I seem to ever get.

Who knows, maybe we WILL win the lottery, and I'll be able to pay off my FA loans, and get back on an even keel. Maybe I'd even go BACK to college, and pursue a different course of study. One that actually has some sort of future...