Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

I've been thinking about going back to school for a long time. The problem is that I really hate wasting money and time on something that I am not 100% sure about. The moment I decided I was going to go to college in the first place went something like this. (This is honestly one of the defining moments in my life).

Me a buyer at a Kid to Kid (kind of like a consignment shop except the merchandise is purchased outright from the people who bring it in so a buying mistake means the store eats the loss). Space is tight in the store and there is never enough room to put everything.

Me talking to my boss:


Me: "You know, that plastic toy chest you purchased has been sitting for 2 months"

Boss: "Well maybe it is priced a little high but it still should be moving"

Me: "I don't think we should purchase any large items that we can't price so low as to move them in less than a week"

Boss: "We do really well on large items"

Me: "It doesn't make sense when you consider we have many large items that have been sitting for over 2 months. If you calculate just the cost to store them for those 2 months by taking the rent and dividing it by the number of square feet in the building to get a cost per square foot, then multiplying that by it by the 4 square feet it is taking up (Prime location by the way so it should actually be more) and then add in its portion of utilities, plus the time to process and clean the item we have already essentially lost money."

Boss: "Well it doesn't work like that. We do really well on big items"

At this point I just gave up and decided I needed to go to college. I was wasting my life and could at least do better than this.

So knowing exactly what I wanted to do and 4 years 121 credits later (needed 120 to graduate) I was a college graduate.

The problem is that this time things haven't been so clear cut. I don't want to waste time and money and not know if the opportunity cost is worth it. I think I would like going back to school, but would I like my career options after the schooling is done or am I just avoiding the inevitable (working at something I don't want to do) for a couple more years?

1 comment:

aubrie said...

That is stressful. I've thought off and on about going back to school, too, but then I decided that it was just so I could put off working...which wasn't a good enough excuse! So instead, I'm burying myself in other activities to help me feel satisfied with my life, even when I don't like my work. Hence, the 101 in 1001, lots of blogging, taking pictures, and cooking.