I come from a home that values education. Kindergarten through post-graduate. You work hard, you get it on paper, you go places. I have never in my life questioned this. I graduated High School, registered in University and have been plunking my way through it (albeit, on my own sweet time) since 2006. I have some credentials to show for it and a very high caffeine tolerance. I plan to get my Masters, I plan to get a PhD, I plan to go to school to get all the credentials I can, because I think learning is awesome and can take notes like a madwoman.
However, I don’t believe education is necessary to get what you want in life.
I value education to the extent that I think you need to know which witch is which and why they’re different (their/there – IMPORTANT!) You should be able to figure out what your annual salary works out to hourly and how to tell time on a “big kid” clock. I value education to the extent that I think it’s incredibly sexy when a man can quote Chaucer and to the extent that when I go in to give birth (one day) I expect that the Doctor will be educated enough on the subject of “push! PUUUUUSHHHH!” that me and my future baby will make it out alive.
But yup… that’s about it. I think life educates better than institution and that with a little bit of grit, you can get wherever you want without sitting in a lecture hall five times a week for 4-7 years. Unless you want to be my Doctor.
SO when, on Sunday, I was placed on “childcare” duty between the hours of 11am and 12:30pm and the kids decided they wanted to play “Life” I decided to test my theories on the board. I chose “Payday” over “Pay for college.” I got a job making $20,000 as a Sales Associate, spent $5000 on recovering after a snowboarding accident, lost my job and became an Entertainer and for a solid 10 minutes made $150,000 annually before settling down with twin boys, a husband who didn’t mind riding in a pink SUV and a job as a Mechanic (?) all the while, living quite comfortably within my means in an airstream trailer.
As I neared what I assumed to be the ‘mid life’ section of the board, I was given a choice: “the risky road” or “the family road.” Seeing as my metro-sexual husband and twin boys were hypothetical, I obviously chose the “risky road,” which in all honesty is most likely what I would choose in real life, husband & kids or not. The good news? I didn’t end up having twin girls (which was an option). The bad news? I got sued for $100,000 by a 7 year old Doctor who assured me that by fixing her car ‘wrong’ I caused her to miss a surgery that ended up killing a man (I encourage the use of imagination while playing these sorts of games…)
BUT I got a raise and a pension plan. I traded my airstream for a mansion after auctioning off a piece of artwork that my grandmother had in her attic. I sued the 7 year old back for defamation of character and for ruining my mechanic business and then I sold what remained of the business and became an accountant and made $120k annually for another 3 years. I retired early (at 40), put my kids through University while I sat sipping mint Juleps and bought an $800,000 hobby farm in Montana with ca$h money.
Sure, “Life” gave me a couple of bumps and bruises. I wouldn’t have pictured myself as a mechanic living in an airstream with a submissive husband and twin boys, but in exchange, I spent time as a Hollywood star. As a traveling salesperson. As a number crunching executive. I retired early and bought the horse I always wanted and I learned a valuable lesson:
You do the best you can with the decisions you’ve made and when in doubt, you can always sue someone for a hundred thousand dollars.
If that riveting news doesn’t convince you that paper doesn’t matter, I don’t know what will.
xo & yw & roll the dice
Photos taken in my front yard because it snowed, & this is AWESOME. xx
