Tuesday, February 17, 2015
I have personally been living in a very interesting time lately,
and I mean that in the best of ways. Though I have had somewhat of a hiatus
with the blog (as much as I hate that), it has actually been for a good reason
this time. So I suppose I shouldn’t feel so bad then huh?
To that
end, I am pleased to say I have finally started posting fliers around town, in
an effort to get my name and effort known and hopefully supported. Seeing as how this is Phase One, I wanted to
concentrate on the more easily obtainable spots, to make sure I would have the
greatest success of posting at the very least. The last thing I wanted to do
was spend my entire afternoon getting rejected and ridiculed. I’ll save that for Phase Two. Anyway, this trip mainly consisted of
apartment complexes and the like: places that I knew small companies and
individuals advertised with no resistance from the management of the
facilities. This one was rather easy.
Since I have spent almost the first decade of my adult life in apartments, I
would see these daily when checking my mail.
I am happy to report I have had moderate success, which is miles ahead
of no progress by far.
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| See? I really did post them. Now the fun part of waiting and hoping. Oh boy... |
To be
realistic, I wish I would have had a little more luck. While riding around town, I perused somewhere
around 8-9 complexes, and only a handful of those had the capability for me to
post anything. It seems this idea may be
phasing out in certain areas, but I cannot say I blame them. While my
intentions are obviously pure, there are many people whose intentions clearly
are not, and it only takes one bad seed to ruin it for everyone. Furthermore,
the idea of a cork board at the mailboxes doesn’t necessarily fit the classier
theme of some of the upscale complexes that have started showing up here. But I can say I put forth an honest effort
and that within the next week or two I will hopefully have fliers posted at a
few stores around town as well, pending owner permission of course.
Though it
has been said before, I feel it cannot hurt to remember why this is so
important. For one, this is a great idea for raising funds for tuition to go to
school. I have very few options when it
comes to paying for my tuition right now.
As I have commented in a previous post, many (if not all) community
colleges in my oh so wonderful state of North Carolina have decided to opt out
of federal funding, which puts them in a better light with the government, at
the cost of my education, as well as that of many other students I am
sure. It’s not like I can just pay the
tuition myself either. I’m looking at just shy of $5,000.00, and if I had that
kind cash to spend, I probably wouldn’t even need to go to community college to
begin with.
While
we’re on the topic, just in case you were wondering, we actually thought about
getting a school loan from the bank to pay for the remainder of schooling. My wife and I were going to sign up at
somewhere, such as Wells Fargo or Bank of America (since they are among the
most renowned and largest banks, we figured they would be our best bet), but
they don’t offer school loans for community colleges, or at least not the one I
am trying to finish out at. We even
considered a personal loan to finish it out, but that would put us in an even
harder bind. Typically with school loans, you have a grace period after
graduation to get settled and start making money (usually about six months)
before they start expecting a return on their investment. With a personal loan, the payments begin
immediately, and I am not sure we are capable of holding down such a large
payment on top of our normal bills.
Furthermore, we would need a cosigner, and while we can probably find
someone to trust us enough to sign with us, I do not feel comfortable risking
their credit along with mine.
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| Well, I would love to give you some money. Unfortunately, my hand does not seem to agree. |
Yet
believe it or not, the tuition is by far not the only event that has led me to
this conclusion. I have been told on countless occasions that the only way I can get a job like what I want is to have some
experience of sorts, such as possibly fixing computers for friends or
family. I am pretty sure that among the
many suggestions I received from staffing agencies that did interview me, the
idea of just offering computer repair to the community was one of the top. After all has been said and done, the
experience is just as important as the money, if not more so. To be blunt about it, I’m tired of not
knowing what I want to know about computers, which is why I have started
studying harder and figuring out what I want to learn. I may be a broken record, and I know many
people are probably getting tired of hearing this, but I’m going to get where I
want to be, and it’s going to be amazing.
The one
thing I have always asked for from everyone is to never feel any pity for me. I
have realized that though I am young, I have caused my situation to be as rough
as it is. I have had opportunities I have squandered, and now with my wisdom
gained in age, I regret that. Yet though
there is a time and a place for everything, this is not the time or place for regret. This is the time to change. I am aware that to some I may seem
foolish, but in my mind I am determined.
Just think about this: I’m pretty sure Steves Wozniak and Jobs looked
pretty foolish when they both dropped out of college and started their own projects,
but these are the same “fools” that brought us Apple Inc. So if I’m a fool, let me take it up one more
step for you. So the next time I feel like a fool, I will just remember that history has taught us the fools are simply those who fight risk with ambition and a touch of crazy, and make something beautiful out of it.
