Why I went to college and what I did when I got out

• July 23, 2008
• James Skemp
• StrivingLife

Since I can't fall asleep, and since experience has taught me that it's best to write when I've got things running through my head ...

Why I went to college

You go to college once you're done with high school - unless you're going straight into the workforce.

At the time I was working at a Culvers, which I enjoyed because of a number of people that I worked with, but I knew that I couldn't make that my profession. There were people that were working there that I just didn't want to become.

So, I looked at colleges and settled on the University of Wisconsin: Green Bay since I couldn't go to Madison, didn't want to go to MATC (I saw tech schools as 'lower than' four year colleges, even though my mom went back to school through a tech school, which helped move us out of lower class into the middle class).

Anyways, I figured it would be temporary as I'd switch over to the UW (Madison).

Originally I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I was interested in psychology (thanks to a high school teacher - Mr. Frank) and math.

My first couple years of college I walked down that path, but biology classes killed me, and I had difficulty understanding my math and physics professors.

I took an introductory course in philosophy, which I ended up not going to quite a bit, but for whatever reason I took a social and political philosophy course my second semester of my sophmore year.

The professor I had for that philosophy course, Dr. Fiala, was young and pretty dang cool. He rather effectively got me interested in philosophy. Another professor got me interested in history (id est, humanistic studies). Since I was required to declare a major and minor ... philosophy and humanistic studies. At that point I still thought I'd switch over to psychology as time went by.

However, my mom wasn't sufficiently swayed when I told her that - she didn't think I listened enough. (Anyone who's known me at some point in the last four years would find that hard to believe.) (Thinking on it further, I've been an introvert since 7th grade, which isn't news to me, and which is perfectly explainable.)

Anyways, I ended up sticking with philosophy, for lack of anything else, and because, especially in my last 2 semesters (I ended up going for 9) I was really into philosophy. This was in part because it was a smaller group that was taking the classes, so I felt more comfortable, I had gained a relationship with most of my professors, and those who intimated me (and probably the rest) in philosophy courses had graduated.

When I finally graduated in December '03, I was sad to leave, and was very tempted to stay on for another semester. But ... I didn't, mostly because I was getting sick of having horrible roommates.

I should note that I had a pretty good one, using hindsight, my Freshman and first half of my Sophmore year. He definitely shaped me. The first part of my Junior year introduced another good one, but from then on, with the exception of one summer, it was pretty much down hill.

The students that I worked with also made leaving hard.

But, leave I did.

What I did when I got out

I was able to take off a couple of months when I got back, before I started looking for work. I thought about going back to Culvers, for the money, and since I was making a good wage when I'd left. I thought about Borders and applying at the Barnes & Nobles that they were putting up (in East Town mall). Finally it was temp work.

My first job was ... interesting. It was supposed to be two days, but ended up stretching into three. Then they wanted me to come back the following week. Luckily, before then, I was asked if I wanted to do another job, involving Web work.

Probably in high school I first was introduced to Web site creation. My first sites were pretty horrid (and still exist under old aliases that I used for a very short time), but I learned basic HTML skills. I grew in my knowledge, but it was completely self-learned. (Fun fact: AOL had some Web tutorials that were probably the first that I had ever read on the subject.)

I had thought about taking courses during college, but it was relatively hard to get into them if you didn't have it as your major. In hind-sight, I'm glad that I didn't, as I shudder to think what I would have 'learned.' (Not that it would necessarily have been bad, but I think my personal interests were better guidance than some one else's during my early development.)

Back to temp work, I gratefully took the second temp job.

Originally it was only supposed to be for a couple of months, and I was picked up with one other person. However, the time frame kept changing, sometimes leading to a bit of stress on when we'd be back looking for jobs. She, the other temp, got a 'real' job, so another, and then another, were hired.

Eventually a new position was created, and it was recommended that I apply, which I did, and which lead to my employment.

Not wanting to talk any further on the issue, I'll cease my writing here, and try to fall asleep.