Get a degree and don't kill anyone

I think that as a person goes through life, their goals change in relation to their situation at the time. As a child, the majority of us weren’t too concerned with making sure that our 401(k) plan was diversified enough for retirement, the more enjoyable aspects of life and having fun were our primary foci; snowball fights, Legos, and cartoons were the most important things we knew. As we grew older, our world got smaller and we began to focus more on school and trying to figure out what to do after high school. Now, the point after high school, our goals deal with life after college, whether this means grad school or finding a job in the ‘real world’. I can only guess what my goals will be 5-10 years down the road, but I would assume I’ll be settling down with a lady crazy enough to want to be with me til death and I’ll be thinking about children at some point. After the kids are done with college and I’ve got grandkids on the way, I’ll probably be looking at a house on the beach someone tropical. And at the very end, I’ll be looking back on my life and preparing to meet my maker.

So, I guess the goal at the end of it all is to be able to look back with fond memories and hope for eternity floating on a nice fluffy cloud next to Gabriel. But, saying that looking forward to death is everyone’s goal seems a little depressing, so I’ll focus more on the goals I’m currently dealing with. Independence is the goal that I can say without a doubt is my top priority. I’d like to be able to provide for myself before I decide to bring anyone else into this world that I have to provide for. I think that independence is a goal that is manifested in different ways throughout life; as a kid we want to be independent enough to spend the night at a friend’s house without too much supervision, as a teenager we’d like to be able to stay out until we decide to come home, as an adult we’d like the responsibility to own our own house, and eventually we all want to be independent enough to not have to work any longer.

As far as a method or approach to reaching independence, I’m not too sure if there is a universal path to follow. Based on my definition of independence, living on your own without any supervision, I’d recommend getting an education and not committing any felonies. Neither of these are needed to live on your own; plenty of people live comfortably without a PhD and even doing 15-20 in the big house doesn’t prevent someone from living on their own after being released. An article put out by the U.S. Census Bureau back in ’02 pointed out that the average lifetime earnings for someone without a high school diploma was about $1 Million, whereas a high school graduate made $1.2 Million, Associates Degree $1.6 Million, Bachelors Degree $2.1 Million , Masters Degree $2.5 Million, and Professional Degree $4.4 Million. This is not to say that money solves all your problems just that it makes it a lot easier to deal with them. I think that the whole ‘not committing a felony’ thing is kind of self explanatory; not too many people consider themselves independent while behind bars. The bureau of Justice released statistics in 2002 dealing with the re-incarceration of former inmates which said that over 50% of those released in 1994 were back in jail within 3 years, not good odds.