I’m kinda afraid of college

[ThatStateOfMind]

I'm scared for many reasons.

Will federal aid be enough? it's community college so it should be, my family makes very little. But after that I go to Uni and I hope it pays for it well enough as well.

Another reason is it's the same campus my ex's boyfriend is at and my ex is going to be going soon (she's major switching). To make matters worse, I'm planning on taking Computer Science and he's also taking computer science. I'll be a year behind him so hopefully we don't see each other often.

I don't even know how well I'd handle seeing them together. I know they're together but seeing them together will add another layer to the pain.

Another fear is I'm afraid the classes will be too hard. It's supposed to have really hard math, and with me transferring to computer engineering, which is supposed to be even harder, it's got me afraid.

I'm second guessing college because of all of this. I wish I wasn't so afraid of suicide either because sometimes i feel like that would be the solution to my problems.

I just needed to vent this before I went to sleep, goodnight guys.

 

[dumpstermagic]

college sucked for me. but it showed me i didn't want that life and forced me to figure out something new which turned out to be way better anyway.

 

[imcadt99]

I'm still at uni and I'm also studying comp sci. I won't sugar coat it, it's been the worst few years of my life. I worked so hard for this yet I hate every second of it. And with the threat of my industry not even existing within the next decade it's safe to say I'm pretty discouraged. I only have a measly 5 classes left after 4 years and I'm at the end of my rope.

I'm sorry to vent in your thread. I hope you pursue your degree and that you thrive in that environment. If I can provide any advice to you it'd be to not let your social skills atrophy. Once you sink far enough into that hole its nigh impossible to pull yourself out even with external support. It's a tough field to get into and with everyone rooting for our demise it's easy to get discouraged. Study hard my friend.

If there's one thing I appreciate about our industry it is that its generous payment has enabled me to afford the more expensive, though more peaceful, bus tickets. I pray you do not meet my fate. I am happy to chat with you if you have any questions about comp sci or my experience in the industry more broadly (3+ years at this point).

 

[ThatStateOfMind]

I'm still at uni and I'm also studying comp sci. I won't sugar coat it, it's been the worst few years of my life. I worked so hard for this yet I hate every second of it. And with the threat of my industry not even existing within the next decade it's safe to say I'm pretty discouraged. I only have a measly 5 classes left after 4 years and I'm at the end of my rope.

I'm sorry to vent in your thread. I hope you pursue your degree and that you thrive in that environment. If I can provide any advice to you it'd be to not let your social skills atrophy. Once you sink far enough into that hole its nigh impossible to pull yourself out even with external support. It's a tough field to get into and with everyone rooting for our demise it's easy to get discouraged. Study hard my friend.

If there's one thing I appreciate about our industry it is that its generous payment has enabled me to afford the more expensive, though more peaceful, bus tickets. I pray you do not meet my fate. I am happy to chat with you if you have any questions about comp sci or my experience in the industry more broadly (3+ years at this point).

Yeah I know it won't be easy, I just feel like the whole ex thing will make it harder. Also what makes you think the industry won't be around in the next decade? If anything, I think it will grow.

I hope to keep a social life and keep social skills (I don't have many already, I have anxiety lol) but I know soft skills are also important. The competition is fierce in this industry for sure, which is kind of discouraging.

And yeah pay is definitely a huge plus in the field of tech, it also (depending on the company) can have a generous PTO package and WFH options.

I hope I can do well if I decide to go but this whole situation with my ex is really putting me off of it and stressing me out.

 

[ThatStateOfMind]

college sucked for me. but it showed me i didn't want that life and forced me to figure out something new which turned out to be way better anyway.

Yeah it might suck for me, no clue yet, but it's worth it if it gets me out of this mental rut I'm in or something, maybe it'll give me hope if I decide to do it.

 

[cristaleyez]

I'm wishing you the best luck, despite whatever decision you make, attending college or not. I'd like to attend in the fall. I'm similarly hoping it'll be a positive change in my life. Beats sitting around doing nothing all day...
At least I'm pretty convinced anything is better than high school. Lol.

 

[imcadt99]

Yeah I know it won't be easy, I just feel like the whole ex thing will make it harder. Also what makes you think the industry won't be around in the next decade? If anything, I think it will grow.

I hope to keep a social life and keep social skills (I don't have many already, I have anxiety lol) but I know soft skills are also important. The competition is fierce in this industry for sure, which is kind of discouraging.

And yeah pay is definitely a huge plus in the field of tech, it also (depending on the company) can have a generous PTO package and WFH options.

I hope I can do well if I decide to go but this whole situation with my ex is really putting me off of it and stressing me out.

My view is pessimistic and no doubt in part a result of my high levels of neuroticism, but it seems to me that white collared work is on the way out with the advancement of AI. It's hard to say where we are on the growth curve for AI, but even if it is an S curve I do not believe we are halfway to its plateau.

I don't say this to discourage you, I'm probably catastrophizing the situation, but it is my honest assessment of the technological landscape. It's just frustrating to see the thing I worked so hard for in the last 10 years of my life be threatened while people jeer at tech workers losing their jobs as even that seems to have become politicized.

If you keep your social skills up even if SE/CE work does disappear you should still be able to survive in another industry. I hope the situation with your ex works out. Couldn't you attend a different community college? I know many offer online courses post-COVID.

 

[ThatStateOfMind]

I'm wishing you the best luck, despite whatever decision you make, attending college or not. I'd like to attend in the fall. I'm similarly hoping it'll be a positive change in my life. Beats sitting around doing nothing all day...
At least I'm pretty convinced anything is better than high school. Lol.

I don't have a time frame yet, if I'm doing it in fall I need to apply soon, but I might not be, I'm too unsure right now.

And if it helps, it seems better than high school. Harder classes but more freedom (less free time if you're doing stem-related majors it seems however)

My view is pessimistic and no doubt in part a result of my high levels of neuroticism, but it seems to me that white collared work is on the way out with the advancement of AI. It's hard to say where we are on the growth curve for AI, but even if it is an S curve I do not believe we are halfway to its plateau.

I don't say this to discourage you, I'm probably catastrophizing the situation, but it is my honest assessment of the technological landscape. It's just frustrating to see the thing I worked so hard for in the last 10 years of my life be threatened while people jeer at tech workers losing their jobs as even that seems to have become politicized.

If you keep your social skills up even if SE/CE work does disappear you should still be able to survive in another industry. I hope the situation with your ex works out. Couldn't you attend a different community college? I know many offer online courses post-COVID.

I know, I'm a bit of a pessimist myself. That and being a perfectionist at times can make me my own worst enemy.

And while I agree, AI can do certain things, I do feel there's probably always going to be jobs in the tech field. And yeah, lay-offs in tech have been happening at an astonishing rate recently. Elon taking over Twitter i feel has made the politicizing of it worse.

Thanks, I hope it works out too, but another college isn't a good option. This is the closest community college, and the only one with a transfer program to the university I also want to go to. So I feel like imma have to go there, I'll just try my best to ignore them

Also, for clarification, I live in a VERY small town, this community college is the closest one and it's still 30 minutes away. The campus is also small so avoiding them would be hard. I feel like if I do see them, ignoring is my best bet.

Although me and my ex are still somewhat close (Idrk how to describe us right now, we call semi-frequently, normally once a week or more), her boyfriend doesn't know that and she doesn't want him to know that so she said she'll have to avoid me in college if I go. At least if I do go, I can socialize and hopefully make new friends, maybe even get a new girlfriend if I feel ready for it. This is all hypothetical because I'm still unsure about college right now though.