YoungAndWise's Journal

[TheWanderingScholar]

http://firejourney.blogspot.com/2013/05 ... -late.html
Next post.

[LonerMatt]

YaW: I know many people on this board think that college is a trap. Promising great returns, but enslaving people.
I was lucky enough to attend with a free ride 9not that remarkable here) and simply completed a Liberal Arts course (majoring in English and History - two 'useless' subjects).
I thoroughly enjoyed the learning and, I feel, learned a great deal that I couldn't have otherwise (or perhaps more accurately, wouldn't have). My lecturers, on the whole, were excellent. The friends I made were invaluable, and I learned a lot about people, socialising, love, relaxation and life from many of the friends I made.
Much of the social life can be open to non-students, but it's sort of like trying to find an open house party just by looking at the phone book.
What works for you, I don't know. What you want out of the experience is certainly your prerogative. Personally, as someone who has lived a directionless 'useless' degree - worked through it, and landed a job straight out, I don't consider my choices, or my results a double edged sword.
I loved it. I enjoyed my life immensely. If I have to work for 2-3 more years to finance FI, it's worth it. The experience made me a better person.
Others, assuredly, have mixed perspectives, so take mine with a grain of salt.
However, if you end up at a higher learning institution just for a job, you're missing out. There are so many advantages to being surrounded by interesting people in the prime of their life: advantages you won't get when hanging around accomplished people in their twilight years (and vice versa). Enjoy the journey, my friend.

[TheWanderingScholar]

@bigato:Do I have problem finishing things? If it is project that takes too long or just doesn't start right, I just throw it away. So yes I do have a problem finishing things that I do for fun. If it is for someone else, or something beneficial for me if I did then no I am not.
@LonerMatt: One of them main reasons I finally decided to jump into college is the fact of the social, not the getting a job. If I wanted to get a job, I could easily complete a certificate degree and get a job on the cheap. But I don't want that.
I want to experience a part of my life with people I can truly call friends.*
*High school friends were really people I just hang around with. Just now are we truly hanging out. Also note the fact that while we are one of the more accomplished classes, we are on of the meanest class in a while.

[LonerMatt]

Be social - people are great. Learn some crazy lessons, start some bizarre hobbies. Save some coin, avoid debt and learn some valuable skills and you'll be miles ahead of the pack, and not miss out on things that are important to you.
I realise you know this already, but it bears repeating .

[TheWanderingScholar]

http://firejourney.blogspot.com/2013/06 ... -fire.html
Update.
Haven't had much time to write a blogpost and my previous attempt I hated so much that I didn't try to finish it.

[TheWanderingScholar]

There definitely won't be post on my blog for the next three weeks since computer access is limited in the Philippines where I am at.

[TheWanderingScholar]

Finally got around posting an update upon coming back to U.S.

And honestly it was strange coming to back. Felt like I was in another foreign country for a while. Still does.
But I learned that you should properly read the time right unless you are willing to pay $1,702 on new tickets.
Yeah my mom did that.

Everyone in the family got on her for that.

[TheWanderingScholar]

http://firejourney.blogspot.com/2013/07 ... ctive.html

Okay anyways I actually posted something.
Seriously I have the link and all.

[TheWanderingScholar]

Moi.
Been over a year and half since I lasted posted here, but why not?
Anyways I have been busy with college, internships, and studying abroad. I stopped the FIRE blog as you can probably guess and haven't really tried to blog in general.
Right now, I feel like I have too many options and at a suggestion of a fellow forumite, I decided to come back to read my journal. Which is going to suck but whatever.

[TheWanderingScholar]

Graduate School: What, Where, and When?

Recently I have been looking at graduate school, because a Bachelor's of Geography can land me a job out of the gate, however only in limited fields and areas, which I do not like, being constrained to certain positions.

So I am contemplating as to what I should get my Masters in. An obvious shoe-in would a degree that places emphasis on Geoinformatics, GIS, and etc. Technical areas that allow me to expand my skillset. However negative factor of that is big; I am really beginning to dislike GIS after a course here in Finland. However that might be because I just hated that course. So I will wait and see.

Another an interesting idea is going into Security Studies and/or Geopolitics. Topics that I am interested in and that I already have colleges in mind for.

For Security Studies, my home university offers one that is a relatively new program. I could get a scholarship plus some pay (forgot the proper name for it) as my GPA is relatively high at the moment and I do have internships plus a year abroad. The problem being is that I will have three years at the same university (four technically if count the year abroad), as the same college, limiting the potential diversity of my knowledge.

For Geopolitics, I am curious about Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. The tuition is not as high as in the U.S. and cost of living is lower as well (in comparison to Turku). The problem is getting in and finding a job afterwards.

Then there is the Dark House of my choices, Urban/Spatial Planning, which I do have experience in and can potentially specialize in easily. The thing about it is my feelings about it are luke-warm as I have no real experience in the day-to-day operations of urban planning. And the bureaucracy behind the EU Spatial Planning scares the shit out of me (although that might be the EU and not the United States, not exactly sure).
I have not really looked into this option.

Another question is when I will do this. I could easily just jump straight into graduate school, or work a year in a related field of work to gain some experience and work. If I work a year, I can save up a year's worth of savings, pay off my student loans*, and get ready to study abroad if it comes down to it.
Also allows me to recuperate from the chaos that will the last year of undergraduate college.

*Had to get student loans because my parents financial situation is shit after their divorce/separation/I don't know and I don't care. By this time, I had made up my mind to study abroad, even if I had to do it alone. Which I have proudly done so far. Have not asked one cent from parents .

[jennypenny]

For Security Studies, my home university offers one that is a relatively new program. I could get a scholarship plus some pay (forgot the proper name for it) as my GPA is relatively high at the moment and I do have internships plus a year abroad. The problem being is that I will have three years at the same university (four technically if count the year abroad), as the same college, limiting the potential diversity of my knowledge.

There are lots of good programs in that field. It's new, so some are in the CompSci Dept, some are listed under PoliSci, some under International Relations, and some universities put it under whatever their World Studies/Global blah blah blah department is if they have one.

Some universities include a security clearance as part of the degree program. That makes you more attractive to potential employers because clearances are a big expense for the employer.

[TheWanderingScholar]

Okay, after looking around a little bit I found another option

Geo-spatial Intelligence Path

Basically, The University of Missouri in Columbus offers a Geospatial Intelligence Program and they are one of few campuses in the country are a part of the USGIF.
Might look into that, the only bad part is that I have to stay in the US instead of seeing the world.

EDIT:
And it seems like a campus in the my state offers a certificate for it, so I could do that instead and save money. Might go that way, depending if certificated is online.

[TheWanderingScholar]

Monthly Update:
Financially, I learned a lesson this month- Overdrafted by $.10, which scared the shit out of me.They being said I didn't get charged and I am finally get some financial assistance from my parents. Health wise and creativity wise I have never felt better. Tomorrow I am going to hang out and get some coffee, see if she likes me or not.

As for graduate school...I still don't know. Still don't think about it as much.

[TheWanderingScholar]

Monthly Update:

Yeah I missed last month. But good news! I am got some running clothes and a kettlebell for working out by myself. And the weather is getting better so I can actually run outside without sleeping on ice!

[TheWanderingScholar]

Alright! I am back! Minus the existential crisis! YEAAAHHH!

But seriously, for the last couple months I have been really losing my sense of self and been a loss of what to do with my life. I didn't have a real plan on what to do with my life between now and what I want out of my life; my writing productivity had went to shit; most social life was there but had a colour of grayness like the Turku Winter*.

But March has arrived; the birds are coming out as the snow melts away, the last breaths of winter of being taken as the opening yawns of spring are arriving. Words flow freely from hand to the keyboard to screen, and I am beginning to enjoy life, once again with taking pleasure in every event I hang out with my new found friends and old friends from last semesters. Today I have been running/walking and doing kettlebell swings to work on my cardio.

I have begun planning for my final year of college, where I will graduated at ripe old age of 21!

So the planning stages of my final year are ahead.

I have three main choices between my decide between, all of which accomplish my primary objectives:

1) Get back to Europe.
2) Not Be Unemployed
3) Not going into more debt: $4,000 in student loans is $4,000 too many.

My three choices (or plans):
1) Asks if professors know anyone who specializes in geopolitics. The reason for this is that my one of my former professors knows someone from Slovenia who teaches in geography and did a political geography lecture last year. I am going to see if I can work that connection out to my advantage.

2) Find a job overseas. It recently dawned on me certain countries in Europe i.e. Norway and Scotland, have oil. A nearby city (HOUSTON) has lots of oil companies. Some of these companies work oveseas.

I am an idiot for realizing this before. And yes, I realize isn't exactly pro-environment route but fuck it someone has to do it.

3) Graduate program in the states and offers me a graduate assistant and focuses on human geography. I have realized that I am a human geographer, not a physical one. I may be knowledgeable to some physical geography but all that information seeks to help my main interest and love: humans and their interaction with natural environment. So that being said I am looking programs focusing on human geography that will be offering graduate assistant work and pay, and allow me to travel to Europe for research and among other things.

So yes, those are my three options or plans that I have.


*Which was one of the worst this year; a few hours of sunlight per month, lots of rains with snow that quickly melted and froze over causing inch thick pieces of black ice. Honestly, if I can survive this Winter I feel like I can survive any.

**Objectives:
The reasoning for these objectives are these: I am still aiming for ERE by 30, which gives me nine years since graduating college to save enough money, which I think is possible considering the past few months I have been living less than minimum wage, in Finland, an expensive country to live in, all the while I have been travelling all over the Baltic from Stockholm to Riga to Tallinn to St. Petersburg. Those number includes the support I will receive from my parents these last couple of months.

And about the first objective:

Why specifically do I want to live in Europe:
I feel in love with continent as a whole. It is much different from America; it feels more connected to the world (which goes back to the Heartland Theory of Geopolitics) than US. I feel the effects and pulse of the world that I do back home much more and intimately. And not only that, but the lifestyle here is more...active than the United States. Maybe it is because my home university is a sleepy town in comparison to here but I feel like I have a social life here more than I ever had in the United States. I have funny stories to tell about me having to do yet another hour's worth of walking home on Christmas Eve. I have meet Estonian programmers who are friends with self-made millionaires back in Thailand and befriended them.

And I have fallen head over girls more often than I did back in the states. Maybe it is because I am not hung up over one girl, maybe it is because of my more active social life. But this falling head over heels phase is part of something larger.

I love people. I enjoyed hanging out in bars with my friends, I enjoy talking to new people when I am drinking (the only way I can have long conversation with a Fin beyond "Moi/Hei"; which I find annoying about Finnish culture in general. Love Finns nonetheless <3). I miss the company of people after a while.
I feel Extroverted, actually.

Which brings me to my final point.

I feel like I beginning to finally have a grasp on who I truly am in a way. Either that or I am changing yet again.

Anyways.

Moi, Moi!

Catch you later!

[reepicheep]

Have you considered that you might be affected by SAD?

I have a blue light and take Vitamin D every day in an attempt to forestall the winter blues. It sounds like you might have been more impacted by the long winter than you realize.

[TheWanderingScholar]

Yes, I think the winter really fucked with my mental state. I took Vitamin D during the winter to stave it off a little however did not have a blue light, which would probably be a good investment if it wasn't March already.

[henrik]

On these forums we talk a lot about learning to live without the forced structure of employment. Well, around here, you need to manage independently of the Sun, both in terms of the daily wake-sleep cycle and your yearly distribution of energy. Make sure you stay around for the summer!

[reepicheep]

This is the one I have:

http://www.amazon.com/Zadro-Sunlight-Ar ... t+sun+lamp

It's a little wonky--sometimes I have to fiddle with the buttons, and it has a lot more functions than I have ever used--but I've had it for six years now and it's stood up to multiple international and domestic moves. It's pretty decent for the price; you could spend 3 times as much and get the same light spectrum and brightness.

Edit: Started reading some of the 1-star reviews and many of them accurately reflect my experience with this device. I can turn it on and off and that's about it; the keypad functionality is laggy and limited, the directions were shit. However, it's done exactly what I need it to do (be really bright and blue colored), without fail, every winter for six years. If you want a device that's closer to a smart phone, this ain't it.

[TheWanderingScholar]

On these forums we talk a lot about learning to live without the forced structure of employment. Well, around here, you need to manage independently of the Sun, both in terms of the daily wake-sleep cycle and your yearly distribution of energy. Make sure you stay around for the summer!

I will definitely be around for the summer; until June specifically.