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Update?
So I recently joined this site and happened across this forum. I read the whole thing! It was like reading a book, absolutely fantastic posts. Well I would like to know how its going at this point? When do you plan to have it seaworthy and start sailing around?
After reading all the posts and considering my own opinion, here is what i think:
Many people gave you advice to go to college first, I disagree with that. I have traveled extensively over continents countries and cities, mainly in between college semesters. I am now 20k in debt and will probably be about 35-40k in debt by the time i am done. The most important education i have learned thus far was not from any classroom but rather from the different cultures languages, and locales i have visited. You and i have the same dream, I unfortunately took the "educational" path. This situation reminds me of a poem by Robert Frost, many of you have probably heard it before:
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Which road will you take? Im 25 now, and i have very few regrets but i always wonder if i had taken another road when i was younger if it would have been better. Now i have to work after school for at least a year or two and pay off my debt and then another 2 to save up for a my boat. LISTEN to me when i say this, you did the right thing by buying your boat. There is nothing worse than suppressing that spark to sail as i have had to do and will continue to for several years now due to my path i chose. Girls will come along, job offers, the house, the car... more and more distractions until your dream seems like nothing but a mirage... TAKE it now while you have it within your grasp.
If you get nothing else from this rant, remember this, Ive taken over 150 credits so far (which i will probably end up turning into 2 separate degrees) many of them not connected with my major because i would rather have been doing something more interesting. 90% of what i have learned in college i could have learned from reading a textbook while on a sailboat.
So... you have to ask yourself, what do you want from schooling... an education from life experience and self study from subjects you are actually interested in, or a Piece of paper after 5 years and 40k dollars.
In closing, many schools offer the ability to "test out" of classes if you know the subject, i have done this 3 times with various classes just from my own research. Also there are accredited schools that offer "home study" courses that will transfer as well as count for credit. You could do something like this while you sail.
Best of luck to you, Ill join you on the seas in 4 or 5 years once i am no longer a slave to my "higher education". I hope your an experienced sailor by then with many miles under your belt, and life experience too precious for any mere classroom.
Peterb31
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