As of September 25, 2008 I am officially no longer a student. I’ve been living inside this warm and comfortable bubble of student status for the majority of my life and now all of the sudden I’m a brand new member of this so called Real Life. It’s a strange trade-off when you think about it. Here, I take a moment to list the pros and cons of each status:

Student Pros

  • Sometimes things are cheaper (i.e. movie tickets, some merchandise)
  • Summer vacation, spring break, sometimes a week for Christmas, and all those other misc. days off.
  • If you’re lucky, you get to take a semester abroad and come back and everything continues without consequence or delay.
  • If you are sick, stay home.
  • If you skip class, up to you to make up for it.
  • You get to plan your class schedule to your liking. (i.e. no early morning classes, no monday/friday classes)
  • Parties, there are a lot of them as students.
  • Lots of social groups to align with (i.e. clubs and extracurricular activites)

Student Cons

  • Homework, projects, papers
  • Grade point average to maintain
  • Cost of tuition, living expenses
  • Unavoidable classes you have to take (i.e. math anyone?)
  • Teachers you hate
  • Pouring your soul into studying and being poor on top of it
  • Sacrificing the NOW for the Future

Professional Pros

  • $$$ or at least $
  • No Homework! (Generally, unless you have to take CEUs but that doesnt really count does it?)
  • Knowing you’re the professional of the field you studied, which makes you an expert right?
  • Finally you can afford nice clothes and nice meals (see bullet number 1)
  • Hopefully you’re doing what you like
  • You can really begin to make a difference somehow

Professional Cons

  • Bosses
  • Work politics
  • Annoying co-workers
  • No Summer vacation (at least like before)
  • 9-5 M-F
  • Can’t just skip work like you did class
  • Taxes
  • Commuting

So now that I’ve been thrown out into the real world, I have to say, I’m going to miss being a student…until I make enough to money to make me realize that being a student sucked! And then I’m sure there will be days where I’ll say, damn it I don’t want to work and I just want to skip and drive to the beach and I’ll realize that the real world sucks too. So I guess Einstein was right about the Laws of Relativity. No matter what there will be pros and cons and that there is no real difference between being a student and a professional. The bottom line is have fun and like what you are doing.

I’m glad I studied something totally awesome.