WHY I WENT TO COLLEGE…

 

In retrospect, I should have stayed in the military service for 20 years, gone to college for 2 years, then worked for the Post Office for 20 years! I would have retired at the tender age of 61! If life served me the same with this new path, I would have been retired for 4 years before my health declined and ended in a coma from a DVT/PE! (Basically, a life-threatening blood clot that stopped my heart, and ended my breathing rights.) For a few minutes, the Earth had more air to breathe and one less senior citizen in the US census! But, to my joy, the woman I married, Dr. Lin, and my Heavenly Father had other plans!

While I was an unwilling and uninvited visitor of another dimension, several dozen people visited my hospital bedside, claiming to be family. The medical staff was baffled as to why my lineage includes African, Asian, Hispanic, and European bloodlines! Work, school, neighborhood, and other sources comprised my “family” and poured in from all avenues! (Somebody loved my old carcass, and it was reflected in the visitation logs!)

Had I not gone to college, at least half of my visitors would not have existed while I was on this cerebral vacation. So college was important because the prayers and well-wishes had a profound effect on our very existence! (I guess the dialysis and other extreme medical interventions aided me as well!) How would you feel if your first cognizant recollection was seeing your blood sailing through a “water park” of tubes and filters before returning to your body after being laundered? (I still have the scar to remind me!)

Aside from the social edification I gleaned from a short visit to the halls of higher learning (meeting beautiful, intelligent women and brotherhoods that have lasted a lifetime, I actually learned another trade to add to my multifaceted tool belt of ways to earn a dollar! I majored in Commercial Art and minored in journalism. My elective was the dubious practice of back-seat and sometimes front-seat oral conversations, while checking my rearview mirror for Park Rangers and Policemen who were charged with the hapless task of preventing such social outings in their venue!

Ten years after amassing all of the aforementioned skills and abilities, I finally left my salesman “career” behind, and started actually using my much vaunted college acumen. I had my first article published in an international publication, which paid me a whopping $150.00, and became Vice President of a now-defunct corporation, earning $20,000.00 on my first commercial art endeavor! (Of course, I did not see one dime of my corporate contribution, because the captain of the corporate ship had an affinity for siren songs and crashed into a financial reef, drowning all hands aboard save for me and my two BFAMs, who preemptively leaped on a school of dolphins swimming nearby!) We went downtown and started over, on our own. However, the moral of the story is that “That stuff was GOOD!” Education, that is:

According to my AI Assistant:

Here's a clear comparison between high school graduate income and college graduate income:

Aspect	High School Graduate	College Graduate
Average Annual Income	About $40,000 (varies by job/region)	About $65,000 - $75,000 (varies)
Median Weekly Earnings	Roughly $750 - $850	Roughly $1,100 - $1,300
Lifetime Earnings	Around $1.3 million	Around $2.1 million or more
Employment Opportunities	Limited to lower-skilled jobs	Wider range including professional roles
Unemployment Rate	Higher (around 5-6%)	Lower (around 2-3%)

Notes:

·         College graduates typically earn significantly more over their lifetime.

·         Income varies widely depending on the field of study, location, and experience.

·         Some high school graduates can earn more than college graduates if they have specialized skills or trades.

If you want specific data for a country or region, or for certain fields of study, let me know!