WORK: Pros and cons of getting a degree

With the cost of a college education increasing by the years, it is more important than ever to make sure you are going to college for the right reasons and also knowing what you’re getting for your time and money. A lot of people tend to go to college because everyone else is, or because their parents did, or because family wants them to be the first to graduate with a college degree. None of these are good enough reasons. When choosing what to do with your life after high school, you need to consider a number of things: your strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, career goals and overall commitment to getting a college education. These, in addition to many other factors, play a big role in making a concrete decision that can affect your life for many years to come in both your profession and your finances.

There are both pros and cons to getting a college degree, but lets begin with the cons. One of the many issues that students face today coming out of college, is student loans. After graduating, so many students start out their careers drowning in financial debt. This alone is enough to make anyone not want to attend college. Most students will take years to pay off their loans because even with a college degree, most careers don't pay enough money to be able to pay off the debt in a timely manner. Another con of going to college is that after you graduate, there is the risk that you might not be able to find a job in your field of study. Statistics show that “if you were a college graduate under 25 in 2011, there was a 50% chance you were unemployed or working in a part-time position. Take a look at these unemployment rates for college graduates within the last 9 years: 

5.7%       2007

10.4%     2010

 8.8%      February 2013

For the class of 2013, the underemployment rate for college graduates was a staggering 18.3% and in 2012 the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that 44% of recent college grads were underemployed” (Fairbanks, “2011 College Grads Moving Home, Saddled with Historic Levels of Student Loan Debt). Another reason that attending college may not be the best choice is that there are still many jobs that do not require a college degree or any type of schooling beyond a high school diploma. 

On the contrary, there are many good reasons to pursue and obtain a college degree. There are many college graduates who receive a degree in a certain field and come out making a decent amount of money. They do not have to worry about struggling financially. A lot of times, there are specific jobs that will hire both high school graduate and college graduate, but the college graduate with a degree may make significantly more money than that of the person with only a high school diploma. Many people look for jobs today that will provide insurance and/or healthcare of some sort. Many careers that offer this type of assistance, will most likely accept college grads over high school grads. College can also provide opportunity for faculty and students to interact, which can certainly be of value in the workplace. Learning effective communication, cultural sensitivity, social norms, working in teams and taking on leadership roles are just a few of the many skills that can be learned in a college environment. 

The education and training of a country's workers is a major factor in determining just how well the country's economy will do. The study of the economics of training and education involves analyzing the economy as a whole, consisting of employers and workers. Two major factors that influence wage rate are training and education. In general, well-trained workers tend to be more productive and earn more money than workers with poorer training. Not in all cases, but in my own personal experience, a lot of times, people who choose to further their education and are persistent in getting a degree are more willing to work hard and need less training in the long run. People can increase their earning potential by developing and improving their abilities. The more they know about a particular job's function or the more they understand, a lot of times, the more valuable they will become to an employer. Usually people who have attended college and received a degree are more apt to improve their potential in order to increase their salary. From an employers perspective, they typically want to hire people who are going to be productive and require less management or training. This can help a company can run more efficiently. 

Storytelling: Pride and Prejudice

First published in 1813, Pride and Prejudice was Jane Austen's second novel. Its hero and heroine, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, may be the most famous romantic couple, short of Romeo and Juliet. It quickly became one of the most romantic novels of all time, and now has become one of the most sought after films. Directed by Joe Wright the film was released on November 11, 2005.

Pride and Prejudice is a humorous story of love and life among English gentility during the Georgian era. Mr. Bennet is an English gentleman living in Hartfordshire with his overbearing wife. The Bennets' 5 daughters; the beautiful Jane, the clever Elizabeth, the bookish Mary, the immature Kitty and the wild Lydia. Unfortunately for the Bennets, if Mr. Bennet dies their house will be inherited by a distant cousin whom they have never met, so the family's future happiness and security is dependent on the daughters making good marriages. Life is uneventful until the arrival in the neighborhood of the rich gentleman Mr. Bingley, who rents a large house so he can spend the summer in the country. Mr. Bingley brings with him his sister and the dashing (and richer) but proud Mr Darcy. Love is soon in the air for one of the Bennet sisters, while another may have jumped to a hasty prejudgment. For the Bennet sisters many trials and tribulations stand between them and their happiness, including class, gossip and scandal.

“The beginning of a story presents a world of possibilities for a writer, and each beginning will make a different impression….Beyond making a favorable first impression on the reader, the beginning of a story typically needs to complete certain narrative tasks”(Kardos, p344). “These tasks include: introducing the characters and the relationships between them, presenting the underlying situation and the beginning of conflict, establishing a tone, voice and point of view, establishing a setting, and giving readers reason to continue” (Kardos, p344).

The film’s opening is different from that of most. It establishes Elizabeth Bennet, the lead female role, as being both “inside” the action, but also an “outside” observer through which the audience will view the story. 

The film begins with overlapping birdsong, which is heard even before the first image appears on the screen. This might suggests to the audience that there is an awakening of nature and will eventually lead to the awakening of other things. The picture then fills the screen, and the audience can see a shot of a beautiful green field and lush trees standing proudly at the end of the stretch of grass, and piano music begins to play as the rising sun peeks over the trees. Mist starts to disperse and a golden glow fills the shot as morning arrives. This scene alone draws the reader in emotionally and makes them feel peaceful before the movie even really begins. In that opening shot, Elizabeth is walking home reading a book. Reaching her home, the audience is able to follow her around the house and we can then see that her home is a “working” estate, rather than what a lot of the traditional “Heritage” films portray. Elizabeth walks behind the sheets hanging on the clothes line. They obstruct our vision, but this can portray to the viewer that Elizabeth’s perceptions are going to be hindered throughout the film.

In the next part of the opening, you see four other girls in the house, one cleaning dishes, two running around, one playing piano. This begins to introduce the different characters that will be a part of the film. It automatically show us their personalities and what type of character they will be. Then the scene moves to show Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, the parents of the 5 daughters, having a conversation about land being bought. Regardless of whether he wants to hear it or not, Mrs. Bennet is very adamant about telling Mr. Bennet what is going on, which begins to reveal to the audience that she is overbearing, while it reveals that he is very calm and collective.

As the story opens up, the scenery and characters alone are enough to draw in the audience and make them desire to see more.

Does America Have a "Follower Problem"?

Many people today are very uninformed and it seems that the generations coming up, are now actually choosing to be that way. There is growing evidence that shows that people today would much rather piggy back off the views of others rather than do their own research and develop their own thoughts and opinions about things. With technology today, where we have unlimited access to everything in just seconds and where the ideas on relative issues is all but already decided for us, we no longer have to do our own research or develop our own ideas. The convenience of the internet and social media has created a lack of education and inability to develop independence in our views. This not only affects our education but it also creates an affect on obedience to authority.

Obedience occurs when you are told to do something by an individual in an authority position. It is a form of social influence where someone acts in response to a direct order from another individual. Civil disobedience is the opposite. It is the refusal to comply with the law or authority. Our nation today is not only experiencing a lack of education due to advances in society, but it is also suffering from civil disobedience.

“I don’t know if America has a leadership problem, but it certainly has a followership problem” (Brooks, 593). This is a quote from David Brooks’ article “The Follower Problem”. Do we have a follower problem in America? Let’s first take a look at what it means to be a follower:

I would define a  follower by their behavior—doing what others want them to do. Conformity happens through social pressure or what is considered to be the normal for the majority. In this response, I am referring to followers according to their “place in society”. Most of the time, followers are low on the totem pole and have less power, authority, and influence than those who are in leadership positions. Many followers typically go along with anything just to get along with the rest, or the majority. This can cause great corruption in a society because everyone is being influenced by one thing or another instead of developing their own view or standpoint. Brooks also states in his article:

“To have good leaders you have to have good followers who are able to recognize just authority, admire it, be grateful for it and emulate it” (Brooks, 594). I believe that there is an evolving dynamic between leaders and followers in our society today. I believe that we are getting to a point as a nation where people no longer have respect for authority, let alone admire it or are grateful for it. People have developed a sense of empowerment and that trend continues today. More and more, we see followers who think of themselves as free, not as dependent subjects. Many of the generations that are coming up in society today have a sense of this which leads to civil disobedience. It also leads to a feeling of entitlement and lack of respect for those above them. I believe that the current changes-cultural and technological ones in particular- have had a major influence on what people want and how they behave, especially in response to authority. Take the current presidential race for example. There have been so many opinions of each candidate thrown back and forth since the race began. Many people have developed an opinion of each candidate but there are many more who have only developed their opinion based off of someone else’s. Increasing dislike and bias has built up based on those opinions. People have not only become upset with the options for the next president, but they have also developed dislike for another. 

Although the mainstream media has done nothing but instigate this hatred, it is ultimately the fault and responsibility of those who follow blindly without doing their own research. I have seen many individuals get angry about things that aren't even true based off of what they just saw on television or heard from the news, or heard from someone they know. Instead of doing research and developing their own opinions, they have just taken this misguided information for face value. 

Another example is the lack of respect for law enforcement. The media has done a lot to divide the country. Lately we have seen division among the people and law enforcement. Riots have broken out based solely on the fact that people don't do their research or wait for the facts to come out before jumping to conclusions. Senseless things have occurred in this country recently due to the fact people, again, just blindly follow something or someone without knowing the truth.

Brooks quotes Eisenhower in his article, “Always try to associate yourself with and learn as much as you can from those who know more than you do, who do better than you do, who see more clearly than you” (Eisenhower, 593).  This quote couldn't be more true for today’s society. If we are going to be followers, we need to be respectful, educated, devoted to knowing truth, followers. When we associate ourselves with individuals who have more wisdom due to experience and opportunity, then we could gain better truth and knowledge that could change this nation completely. 

Ahh nursing school pre-requisites... So many classes, so little fun. I suppose if you absolutely adore science and math classes, then you might consider them fun, but I would imagine the majority of pre-nursing students struggle through some, if not most, of their pre-reqs. This seems mostly true if the anatomy and/or physiology classes are specifically designed to filter out those students for the nursing program. Which seems to be the case most of the time. Anyways I am more than halfway done with these pre-req classes and I am ready for spring semester to be over. I will be the one running out of the school doors praising Jesus!

So, the pre-requisites that are required for my admission to the RN program I will be doing are:

• Microbiology
• Human Anatomy
• Human Physiology
•  Chemistry
• Statistics
• Various Humanities classes
• Various English classes
• Sociology

I've completed all of my pre-reqs except those which I am taking this semester and next. The classes I still need are Human Physiology, a Reading/Writing Class, and Chemistry. So far this semester, I am actually enjoying my classes, which has actually made things a little easier than they have been in the past. I never thought I would actually say that, but it’s true. 

However, I currently have a love/hate relationship with my Human Physiology class because I love learning about the human body and how it functions, but the tests are SOOO hard. Because I want to do super well in my classes this school year, making A’s and B’s, my perfectionist side has somewhat taken over. So when I got a C on my first test, I freaked. But thank goodness for homework assignments and Lab. They are the true lifesaver and will probably be what pulls me through this class.

My Reading/Writing class has been an interesting one. Its not at all what I expected it to be, and I think that's a good thing. This class is more of a discussion/peer involvement type class. I love to talk to people and discuss things. That makes me happy. I have done well so far in this class and plan to continue that throughout the rest of the semester.

Needless to say, I am overly excited to be getting closer to finishing my pre-reqs for this program. It has been a long, monotonous journey. Nursing school seems to be right at the tips of my fingers and I can almost touch it. I will be applying at the end of spring semester and if I am accepted, I will begin nursing classes in the fall of  2018.