gee, that's two e-mails in a row that (a) make me want to cry and (b) I have no idea how to reply to

[bedlamsbard]

*bites lip* My father -- the one who has spent the last ten years leaving every fucking winter and making no money while he does it, the one who spends almost half the year in Thailand and Laos -- just sent me an e-mail telling me that I'm wasting my education, my major is useless, and that I need to think about the future, otherwise my degree is going to end with me working as a clerk at Fred Meyer.

*tries not to burst into tears* It's not like he's the one to talk. Also, I like my program, and as my mother says, it's undergrad. It doesn't fucking matter what your undergrad degree is.

ETA: Have taken the day off work to have a nervous breakdown. Have plans involving many many cups of tea (must buy tea this week; am almost out of jasmine), knitting, and comfort TV. Will hopefully not end up on WEBS doing shopping therapy via yarn.

Comments

[juliekarasik]

Wow. I don't have anything really useful to say, so I'm sending virtual hugs. Lots of them.

[bedlamsbard]

*hugs back* Thanks.

[ineptshieldmaid]

*hugs you* Well, he's WRONG. Your program is awesome, it's teaching you lots of flexible research and writing skills - novelist plans aside, that's never a bad thing. :D

You're, what, eighteen? Nineteen? Next time someone tells you you've got no career, beam at them and tell them your career hasn't been invented yet. Because it's true. Kids These Days (and I ought to be one of them, I guess) are going to end up being paid to do SO MUCH WEIRD SHIT OUR PARENTS NEVER IMAGINED. So you're training yourself to analyse information, think critically, and write well, and you, Ms Bedlam, are going to kick arse at your as-yet-uninvented career.

[bedlamsbard]

And it is basically melding my history and English plans into one program! Which symplifies matters! Am not actually doing anything different!

*hugs*

[ineptshieldmaid]

If it helps, my dad told my 21st birthday that I'm going to work at McDonalds.

Two days later I got a full-time, $50 000 a year job offer.

[bedlamsbard]

GO YOU.

My mother says that I don't have to e-mail my father back. *sniffs* I have the best mother ever.

[harpers_child]

if you need a couch to curl up on for a while, i have one.

[bedlamsbard]

Thanks. I may take you up on that sometime. But it's my suitemate's birthday today, so alas, I am needed...but the cake is fantastic looking.

:(

[angel_negra]

*hugs* Honestly, from the way you casually talk about medeival medivial 'that stuff you're getting your degree in that I can't spell' times? I think you'll go far with it. You make it sound interesting to the average layperson AND you're a very talented writer. Heck, you could either be a world famous novelist or a professor and those are just the obvious options.

Re: :(

[bedlamsbard]

*hugs* Thanks.