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College isnt giving me the life i want to live

Anonymous Sun 16 Nov 2014 19:46:19 No.419974 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>419981 >>420088 >>420091 >>420121 >>420167 >>420259

Hey /Out/
So ive been coming here on and off for the last few years now, mostly to live vicariously through most of your adventures. Anyways im a junior in college and ive been hating every minute of it, i dont think im cut out for the educational system and i want to drop out and do something that reaffirms my life. Ive been a climber for about 8 years now and im pretty competent at it (boulder v12 and sport/trad climb 5.14a) and nothing sounds better to me than pursuing and AMGA guide certification and being a guide for the rest of my life. Anyone on here have an AMGA cert that can tell me how it is and how much they enjoy it? also general adventure thread

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Nov 2014 20:07:24 No.419981 Report

Quoted By: >>420009 >>420167

>>419974
I was in a really similar place. I dropped out after three years of university and found my dream job guiding canoe trips in northern Canada. My day starts at sun up and goes until after sunset but hardly a second of it feels like work and I constantly meet amazing people, guests and fellow guides. In a couple years guiding I have learned more about myself and my goals and aspirations than I did in the pervious 21 years. I wouldn't trade it for a 100k a year and a flashy car if it meant I had to work a 9-5.

That being said, I did start taking correspondence classes and am working my way towards finishing my degree. It will take a couple years, but I am enjoying at a lot more now that I am doing it on my own terms. It's kind of funny, now that I approach school just wanting to learn and not seeing it simply as a step to something else I am doing better than I ever have.

I know a lot of people will disagree, but if your heart isn't into school do be scared to step back and go after a dream. Just try to keep the door open to going back, you never know where your head will be at in a few years.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sun 16 Nov 2014 21:05:10 No.420009 Report

Quoted By: >>420236

>>419981
No canoe guides over 40. I wonder what you do when you are 40 and have no marketable skill except canoeing. Alcoholism comes to mind, but nothing more.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 17 Nov 2014 00:12:56 No.420088 Report

Quoted By: >>420090 >>420121

>>419974
If you were climbing 5.14a trad routes we'd have heard of you and you'd have a sponsorship. Nice try.

Being a guide is brutal. Low pay, a shitload of work and generally seasonal until you can get up in the ranks via seniority. I have a couple of friends who are working that route and I don't envy them.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 17 Nov 2014 00:24:48 No.420090 Report

Quoted By:

>>420088
never said you hadn't heard of me. you might have, ive been mentioned in a few Rock and Ice articles and been offered a few sponsorships but have turned down most. I dont compete and i dont climb for notoriety, i climb for myself

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 17 Nov 2014 00:26:46 No.420091 Report

Quoted By:

>>419974
>College isnt giving me the life i want to live
That's because going to college is the work you do so that you can earn the life you want.

If being drunk every weekend and reading six hours a week is too much work for you to be willing to invest your time in it? Guess what else you can't accomplish?

Finish your degree. You can still be a bum in a shack after you get your degree and you'll be able to change your mind and do other things, too.

Coldfoot !!eppOvF3ot92

Coldfoot !!eppOvF3ot92 Mon 17 Nov 2014 01:31:41 No.420121 Report

Quoted By:

>>419974
If you're a junior, then you only have a year and a half to go. Finish your degree. If possible, get your degree in something useful. College isn't supposed to be "giving you the life you want to live." It's supposed to prepare you for it.

It's possible to make money by guiding regardless of education, but as has been mentioned, guiding work tends to be seasonal, and if you ever get injured, then you temporarily lose the ability to make money. This type of work is always by the hour, by the day, or by the trip, plus tips - never on a monthly salary - so you simply must work to live.

My brother got a business degree in college and shortly after graduating, he founded his own guiding business. Since he operates it out of his home, and his "storefront" is his website and his car, the initial capital to invest in the business wasn't really that high. He used Groupon to advertise heavily at first, making very low pay but building his clientele and getting his name out there. It also helped that he was in the climbing club at his university, since it helped him make connections - some former climbing club members are now his employees, for example.

As >>420088 mentioned, if you don't own the business and merely work as a guide, then pay isn't going to be that great. Even when clients are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars per trip, most of that money goes to the business owner. The problem is that as a business owner, it's all on you. If your business fails, then you go down with the ship.

While you could probably figure out running a business without a business degree, I'm sure it would help to have the education... It would also give you something to fall back on, if your business fails and you need to apply for a "real job" somewhere. Keep in mind that even if you do found your own business and enjoy modest success, it's still seasonal work. Your paycheck in the winter will be $0/mo. unless you can find work as a ski instructor or something like that.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 17 Nov 2014 02:40:09 No.420167 Report

Quoted By:

>>419981
Hmmm, this was well said, although I don't entirely agree with the advice given. But. It has become less important to people nowadays to have their first priority in a career not be money, but that it's something you love doing. And I think that makes all the difference as to how happy an adult you become.

>>419974
I would still reccommend finishing school though. You only have 1.5 years left which is chump change compared to all the years you will have afterwards, and you'll come out with a degree. You may not need or want to use that degree right after you graduate, but you never know where you'll be in 10 years, and they don't grow on trees.

It's great that you're pursuing something active that you like, but stick it out at school. If you hate college, maybe you need to switch things up there somehow.
Focus on how to get more out of it and enjoy it instead of dropping out.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 17 Nov 2014 04:33:56 No.420236 Report

Quoted By:

>>420009
I have no idea where you have gotten this assumption from. I have been working with two guides who are both close to sixty right now. Stay active and eat properly and you don't break down just because you hit middle age.

In the area where I have been working you can buy an acer of land on a lake for 20k. Build your own house off the grid and your expensise are pretty slim after that.

Like I said before, I am working on finishing my degree anyways. But there are all kinds of options in opening my own guide business, outfitting station, hostel, outdoor education ect.

I have been living alongside people ranging from newborns to grandparents and a comfortable life is feasible. It just depends on the lifestyle you want. For me, spending 40 or more hours a week doing something that I don't love just so I can have a 2000 square foot house and fill it with stuff that I don't really need sounds like a waste of a life. But for other people that's what is important for them and I wouldn't give someone a hard time simply because of that.

If climbing is where his passion is then go for it. If you are in your early 20s then who cares, school will be there in a couple years if things don't pan out. I know from my experience you get a lot more out of it when your head is in the right place.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 17 Nov 2014 05:13:16 No.420259 Report

Quoted By:

>>419974
Finish your college education. These days its the equivalent of a high school education 30 years ago. At the very least, you have something to fall back on should your life of adventure doesn't pan out.

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