Don't do it.

Don’t do it.

I know what you’re thinking.

Don’t do it.

I know how you feel. You’re sick and tired of being here. You constantly ask yourself “Is it over yet?”

Trust me if you don’t want to do it now; you really won’t want to do it five, 10, 15 years from now.

Of course I am talking about school. I was young once too. At 18 I knew it all and where I was going from there. I had it all mapped out. The day I graduated high school I knew what I was doing and where I was going.

Boy was I wrong.

Somewhere between the day I graduated Moline High School and the day I registered at Black Hawk College I got some crazy idea in my head that I was Donald Trump. I was tired of school anyway and was looking for the easiest path out. So I ditched my dreams in Lot 3 and signed up for a degree in business management.

Twelve years later I’m still kicking myself.

I’m now a student here at St. Ambrose and reviving the dream I left for dead so long ago. My wife is the one who told me to go back. You may not be so lucky as to have someone who will not only support you, but tell you “You’re an idiot if you don’t go.”

If you think it will be easy to come back after some time off, it won’t. I told my mom that I was going to take a year off to work and save money to go back. Well one turned into two and two became two kids and a wife. Now I have to work 40 hours a week, study for class, do homework, pay bills, give attention to my family, go to all of their functions and catch up to a generation who didn’t leave their dreams. I wasn’t a social butterfly to start with, but the fun times are few and far between now.

Scheduling and time-management have become my new buzzwords. I live out of my planner. There is no spontaneity at all. A night out with my friends always has to include a two-week notice.

I finished my associates and I am still stuck in a dead-end job with no benefits and live paycheck to paycheck. Being the assistant manager at Hot Topic may seem cool now, but it won’t seem that way later. Someone once told me the difference between a job and a career was that you can explain your career in one word, doctor, teacher, engineer, etc. A job was what you have when you need extra cash at Christmas.

Employers are looking more and more for someone who definitely has more than a high school education, and many time are seeking a candidate with a bachelors or higher.

And there is no guarantee that this opportunity will come your way again. Sure, schools will be here down the road, but life can take so many twists and turns you can’t be sure that you will cross this bridge again.

I was lucky. You may not be.

So please, stick it out. Learn from my mistakes. You won’t regret it.