20th January, 2008
Question
Just a one-liner, looking for moral support, I suppose. I dropped out of college at the end of my first year. That was last summer and the war is still raging at home. I haven't been idle. I've worked and made myself financially independent, more or less. I'm also trying to figure out what I really want to do. Christmas was awful. How do I convince my parents that I'm not a waster?
Answer
By persevering. Your parents aren't being very wise, but their concern is understandable. On the other hand, you did what you had to do. So you have to agree to disagree and get on with it. It might help, however, to understand what lurks behind parental outrage. They're frightened you don't understand reality, don't see that college fees must now be met, that degrees are like the Leaving Cert used to be in terms of street cred and job opportunities, that earning money matters more than it ever did, that friends become alienated when we take a different path, that it's easy in this life to get lost. Show them you understand all that and they'll probably simmer down. Good luck.
