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Oh, do I empathize with the lw who talked about "selling down." Yeah, I graduated a few years ago just shy of cum laude with a liberal arts degree with two majors. Yep, I volunteered for a year with Americorps, running an afterschool program (the whole thing, from grants to kids to admin) with another person. What do I do now? I'm someone's assistant, and I work part-time as a ticket agent with whatever company replaced the union workers at the airline.
I hate it, every minute. But I get healthcare from the assistant job, and the airline job lets me pay off the massive credit card debt I accumulated through a combination of stupidity (college), hard times, and unemployment.
Fortunately for me, my student loans were very low. I also have a spouse and no television, so in two years, all my high-interest debt will be paid off, and within a year we should be able to start saving. In five, I should be able to look at changing careers (if you can even call this a career) or going back to school. I'll only be 31, with about 45-50 more years to live.
Of course, working 13 hours a day and 8 on weekends, it's hard to remember that there's light at the end of the tunnel, forget about having the energy to do activism.
