Assess your life to-date

Dory Berkowitz-Bukowski

Dory Berkowitz-Bukowski

Clam whisperer
Oct 15, 2004
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Robin Hood Country
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What I mean is are you where you want to be jobwise, lovewise etc?

I've squandered a lot of my life due to various factors. My parents got me into one of the best private high schools in the country and I squandered that by never turning up, never studying and never trying. I was lucky to pass all my exams relying on natural intelligence rather than actual work done. I look at the other 120 girls who were in my year at school and for the most part (like 110 of them) achieved really well, getting into Oxford and Cambridge and the like I feel a bit of a failure next to it. I dropped out of my first college after 5 days due to homelessness, it took me another year to start again at another college, due to this I'm always going to be a year behind in studies compared to my peers and that bugs me. I work in a hospital as a secretary and I know I could have been the doctor, not the secretary to the doctor. I spent my time from 16-18 getting drunk, partying and never turning up to college. I finally got my act together in the last year but it was too little, too late and I was bitterly disappointed with my results.

However I think for my age (19) I'm pretty advanced in life, having fended for myself financially and emotionally since the day I turned 16 and now I've started a degree I can see that in a few years time I could actually become a teacher which is something I feel I've been destined to be since I was younger. One of my big passions since a young age was books and so hopefully in 3 or 4 years time I'll be starting to pass on that love to a generation of kids, that thought brings me some kind of goal to achieve.

Financially I do fairly well, I have my own flat, I'm not going to end up with a bunch of student debts like most people my age (in excess of £10k in a lot of cases, unless mummy and daddy pay for it all) and so from that point of view I'm fairly happy. I'm not where I could have been, but considering I came from a very underprivileged background I've done okay, I could have done great things which is something that plays on my mind a lot but I suppose due to circumstance and parts of my character that was never meant to be.

How would you sum up your life?
 
Wow. I forget how young you are. :lol:


My life is great. Only thing I would change is work stuff and travel more.
 
pleased as punch - everyone makes mistakes, i've made plenty. easy not to dwell and move on. as long as i achieve any goals i've set for myself, i'm somewhat happy with life. relationships or money won't give me that happiness, it has to come from something i personally achieve with my own ability.

overall, things could have gone better. i shouldn't have moved to canada. i shouldn't have quit my old part time job to focus on studies and then end up with food poisoning for a few weeks, missing most of my shit. but i can remedy that if i get my head down. everyone can. that's the beauty of achievement.

also student loans are no big deal.
 
Childhood = awesome. I was blessed with an active imagination and a kickass yard to play in. I also had caring grandparents who I owe my intelligence to.
El-Hi = suck. Parents thrusted me into private school, and I was a total social outcast because I was a year younger and wasn't "cool". I retreated to my hobbies- field hockey, environmental science, and jazz- and managed to do well under the radar. My mother wasn't around at all, for various reasons, and my dad and I became best friends and still inadvertently gang up on my mother to this day.
College = awesome. Broke out of my shell completely, delved heavily into science and shed pretty much every inhibition I developed in El-Hi. I sacrificed a lot in return, like my piano skills and giving up the All-American, potential Olympics bid in field hockey, but I learned that in life there are tradeoffs.
Post-College, Pre-Grad School = FUCKING SUCK. What was supposed to be a year off from higher education turned into a six-year exercise in getting my heart stabbed, ripped out of my chest, stomped on, set afire, and having the ashes spat on, in return for sacrificing my dreams, a healthy salary, and most of my semblance of sanity. It's been a long road back to feeling and being healthy and secure.
Grad School = FUCKING AWESOME. I feel like I've broken out of another shell here, and realized that I've grown up a lot while still feeling like a kid when appropriate. I can't emphasize more that this is career path that was meant for me, and I've unabashedly had more fun, dealt with more heartbreak in a sane fashion, and loved more than I thought was possible.
Physical takeaway = House, car, bike, stipend, etc.
Metaphysical takeaway = a decent head on my shoulders and a big heart
 
Enemy said:
Depends on how well the job pays at the end, teachers don't get paid very much and I don't like the idea of any debt. That's why I'd never go to a normal university, the OU courses seem to be great and they're amazingly low cost.
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you have to be earning over 15k per year before they start docking the salary.

either that or you can just move to the republic of ireland and laugh :lol:
 
polo said:
you have to be earning over 15k per year before they start docking the salary.

either that or you can just move to the republic of ireland and laugh :lol:
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Yeah and I've heard a lot of horror stories, people only getting paid 16k and then being raped by the student loans company because they decide they have to repay a stupid amount every month. I don't see the point when you can pay upfront and not have any of the fuss. Obviously the OU isn't suited to some courses but for mine it's ideal, all you gotta do it read books which is what I do all day everyday anyway.
 
Enemy said:
Yeah and I've heard a lot of horror stories, people only getting paid 16k and then being raped by the student loans company because they decide they have to repay a stupid amount every month. I don't see the point when you can pay upfront and not have any of the fuss. Obviously the OU isn't suited to some courses but for mine it's ideal, all you gotta do it read books which is what I do all day everyday anyway.
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still, distance learning is still viewed with a little contempt by most academics. i know a girl with her masters from the OU and she's still struggling to get a job. smart girl, got a first in her undergrad too..

also, moving to dublin is a silly idea "yes.. i live in a tree... costs 400,000 euro a year.." fuck that.

also, maggie thatcher saved the OU.. oh that terrible, terrible woman ;)
 
polo said:
still, distance learning is still viewed with a little contempt by most academics. i know a girl with her masters from the OU and she's still struggling to get a job. smart girl, got a first in her undergrad too..

also, moving to dublin is a silly idea "yes.. i live in a tree... costs 400,000 euro a year.." fuck that.

also, maggie thatcher saved the OU.. oh that terrible, terrible woman ;)
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Apparently it's becoming very highly viewed according to a university lecturer I know. He was amazed that people haven't viewed them well in the past, he said he used to steal some of his lectures off the OU lecturers because they were so brilliantly thought out whereas he had to pull them out his ass most the time.

I only know one person who lived in Dublin, and she's a Dutch crazy lady, she was a very highly paid administrator for Amazon so she lived quite well there, but I hear it's crazy expensive. But then Ireland seems very expensive to me from the trip that I made last year.
 
Enemy said:
Apparently it's becoming very highly viewed according to a university lecturer I know. He was amazed that people haven't viewed them well in the past, he said he used to steal some of his lectures off the OU lecturers because they were so brilliantly thought out whereas he had to pull them out his ass most the time.

I only know one person who lived in Dublin, and she's a Dutch crazy lady, she was a very highly paid administrator for Amazon so she lived quite well there, but I hear it's crazy expensive. But then Ireland seems very expensive to me from the trip that I made last year.
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oh the OU is good, there's no problem there. just how it's viewed. people think if you haven't put in the class time, the being broke constantly and the whole motoring your way through being a student then it's not worth their time. it's pretty good with it's courses. my friend is doing history of the british empire now, i think... seems to enjoy that a lot.

dublin is wild. last time i was down at trinity a sandwich and a bottle of apple juice cost me 14 euro. i've never been more raging.
 
polo said:
oh the OU is good, there's no problem there. just how it's viewed. people think if you haven't put in the class time, the being broke constantly and the whole motoring your way through being a student then it's not worth their time. it's pretty good with it's courses. my friend is doing history of the british empire now, i think... seems to enjoy that a lot.

dublin is wild. last time i was down at trinity a sandwich and a bottle of apple juice cost me 14 euro. i've never been more raging.
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I guess being at the OU proves that you're very self motivated though compared to most students who lie in bed getting drunk for the first year. I love the fact that they give you all your books as part of the course fee, that cheers me up immensely.

Wtf, that's like a million pounds. We did go to local supermarket type things for food and it cost us a fortune just to manage to eat breakfast, it was one of the shittest holidays ever.
 
In the crapper but I can almost reach the edge to pull myself out. Annoying but fixable with hard work and getting rid of the monkey on my back. At least I have hope of seeing improvements now and that makes such a difference.
 
Life is good. I've had some not-so-stellar moments along the way, but wouldn't change a thing, as everything I've done helped mold me into the person I am now. Job's good, wife is awesome, the boy is awesome, I make a comfortable living. I'd love to travel more, but we're working on it.
 
tre said:
Life is good. I've had some not-so-stellar moments along the way, but wouldn't change a thing, as everything I've done helped mold me into the person I am now. Job's good, wife is awesome, the boy is awesome, I make a comfortable living. I'd love to travel more, but we're working on it.
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travel here ill take you to the family seat.
 
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