How are you supposed to know what to do with your life? Some people manage to find something they're passionate about at an early age. Others, like me, are 24 years old, have spent years in college, and still have no idea. My situation isn't even the worst out there. People twice my age are still trying to figure life out.
I went to Clackamas Community College starting in 2007. Networking and Microcomputer Specialist was my degree of choice. There was little emphasis on being a "microcomputer specialist." It was mostly networking. I didn't put a lot of thought into what I wanted to do. I knew that I liked computers and that I already knew a good amount about building, fixing, and using them. This made a computer related degree seem like a good idea. It wasn't. I never finished the degree. Going through the classes, I slowly realized that it wasn't the thing for me. I'd prefer to leave computers as a hobby and not get deep into the technical aspects of them because those aspects do not interest me at all. I tried and failed to get a relevant job to fulfill the cooperative work experience requirements, all that remains of the degree requirements. I feel like I ran a marathon and fell into a manhole 50 feet from the finish line.
Now I'm at Portland Community College in the Microelectronics Technology program. It's a little more interesting than computer networking. I was attracted to it by the apparently very high possibility of getting a job at Intel or another semiconductor company in the area by the end. The idea that an associate degree was enough to get a real job shocked me. How could two years of college qualify you for anything more than flipping burgers, scrubbing toilets, and a free trial of Amazon Prime?
Classes started well. MT111 was like a review of the basic electronics class I took in high school except there was reference material this time such as a textbook. MT101 and 102 taught me some of the basics of semiconductor manufacturing. I could have saved a lot of time by taking WR121 at Clackamas instead of WR101 but both of them have been relatively enjoyable. Writing classes are usually my leave favorite. The ten ton granite block that broke the camel's back was MT103. I didn't know how waitlists worked when I was signing up for classes. I was on the waitlist for MT103 on campus so I decided to drop it and take it online with a different instructor instead. There was more work to be done in this class than my other four combined. It's a one credit introductory course, like MT101 and 102, which were not very difficult. I started thinking more about how the second year MT instructors were rated on RateMyProfessors.com. Maybe taking a bunch of classes on a complex subject from two guys with average scores under 3/5 wasn't a good idea. If any future classes ended up like MT103 I would only find failure in this program. The thought of getting a real job with this specific associate degree started making more sense.
I don't think I'm cut out for any of the electronics, programming, or networking I've tried to get into. I'm not passionate about them. I haven't shown an aptitude for them. They only seemed like the kind of fields I should enter because they had some relevance to my hobbies or the potential jobs paid well. I know now that I want to get out of the microelectronics program but I'll still be wandering through life, trying to find something I care about.
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