It's safe to say the world was a much different place when I was a kid. I see a lot of kids with jobs these days or trying to be influencers so they can live that lush life. It's not that kids didn't have jobs when I was in high school, but it was a totally different dynamic than what you see today. I think you can point to a variety of factors if you want to place the blame.
I had a regular circuit of lawns that I would mow for a few dollars here and there in the Summer, but for the most part, my parents made it clear that school was my job. The traditional path was well laid out back then. Grade school, then university, then get a job. It was baked into the culture, and there was never a question that any other path was viable.
There were actually a few times I considered enlisting in the Navy, but I knew my dad having been a Navy man himself would have been against it. I didn't even bother bringing it up. Now that I am older, I fully acknowledge that university isn't the ultimate destination that it used to be. I was pretty lucky that I escaped my graduate career with zero student loans, I know the same can't be said for a lot of people.
Even so, if I were to do it all over again, I don't know if I would have gone to university. I know a few HVAC technicians and electricians and they are doing quite well for themselves. I think I could have had a decent career in one of those fields, but who knows. Even welding seems like it could have been an interesting and fun field to go into.
However, I did not become a welder. Instead, I took the five year track changing my major two or three times and I got myself a Bachelors of Science degree in Computer Information Systems with a minor in Management. I'd like to say it served me well, but honestly, 90 percent of the knowledge I have was picked up on the job and the classes I took had very little impact on my actual job.
I often wonder how much that is the case with most degrees. Despite that, I won't lie and say it wasn't a lot of work. It was a ton of work and I was so happy when I finally finished up my degree. In fact, I still have nightmares dreams sometimes that I am still back in university and I am always so happy to wake up and realize that time is behind me. I also have dreams that I find out after the fact that I didn't really have enough credits to graduate and therefore my degree is invalid, but thankfully those are bunk too.
When I was in school (okay boomer...), online classes weren't an option. In fact, despite the fact that the Internet had been around for a few years by then, I don't think online classes had even been invented yet.
A short time ago, my sister in law finished her online Masters degree through some university (I don't know, ABCU) and as expected, we all congratulated her for her hard work and dedication.
Which being the asshole curious individual that I am, got me thinking about these online degrees and the question of whether or not they are devalued due to their low cost and easy accessibility than degrees used to be in the past. I hope she never reads this because I am truly proud of my sister in law, and if that masters degrees makes her employer add some numbers to her salary, then that is awesome for her and her family.
Like I said though, part of me has trouble wrapping my head around it. There's something about it that seems "less than" what was doe in the past. In fact, on closer inspection, these degrees might actually have more practical application than the degrees we got in the past, but the path to them seems just seems diminished for me.
Which really makes me feel like a bit of a jerk. I don't think 
Unless you are gunning for a top tier law firm, employers probably don't care so much where you got your degree from. It's not like "Suits" where they only higher Harvard graduates.
I don't know, let me know what you think in the comments.
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