MGF Best: The Missed Education of Lily White

You know, reading through all your old posts is hard work, LOL! But, it's also cool to look back and see where your mind was at the time. I got a lot of reaction from some family when I posted this one. Going against the status quo is hard to do...but as BrownSuga told me when she submitted her picks, "People need to realize successful people come in all shapes colors sizes and with different educational and lifestyle backgrounds." To each, their own, people! - Lily

Q: What do Peter Jennings, Sally Field, John Glenn, Steve Jobs, and your very own Lily White have in common?

A: None of them have college degrees.

It’s not a shameful secret. It’s just not something that I share right away. It’s almost like a surprise, actually. When people talk to me, they simply just assume things about me. I enjoy talking about books, history, movies, sports and music. My friends (both online and in real life) generally say their first impression of me is that of a smart and quick-witted person. I hang out with a lot of teachers and professors thanks to my husband and my position as a Speech and Debate coach. Education has always been a part of my life in one form or another.

This is why it’s such a shock to some people – and disappointment to others – that I don’t have a college degree. But you know what? I don’t quite see what the problem is. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who look down on this sort of thing. It’s almost like the degree is a piece of currency. If you don’t have it, you don’t have spending power.

Not that I didn’t try. When I moved here to the southwest, I had every intention of completing the degree I had started two years before. I had decided that I wanted to get my Bachelor’s in education, following my Grandmother’s footsteps. However, fate was a little rough. I couldn’t afford to go to school and work at the same time. So, in a decision made solely on my own, I went into the work force full time and waited for Lenny to complete his education.

Let’s get one thing straight first – I AM NOT AGAINST COLLEGE EDUCATION. I work with teenagers and I encourage them to continue their schooling. There are definite advantages to having at least a Bachelor’s degree. In the career world, every little bit counts. What I rail against however, are the people who believe that the degree is the end all and be all to be successful. Or even worse, people who lament the fact that they don’t have their degree but refuse to do ANYTHING with their lives.

Lenny and I have a friend. She is a very bright person and by all means should be successful. Like me, she doesn’t have her college degree. Over the course of the last five years, she’s started and stalled trying to get on track. I commend her for this because it’s not easy to balance work and school at the same time (a decision I came to a long time ago). However, it is difficult to be a cheerleader to someone who lives and dies tragically whenever someone in our circle advances again in education.

There was a stretch of three years where various friends finished their college educations. Each time someone did, I had to listen to our friend lament how she felt “left behind” or how there would be “no one to share the experience with when she finally gets her degree.” In the meantime, the girl was making money hand over fist with a large corporation who offered wonderful employee benefits. When I suggested she see what she could do to advance in this company, her response was that it was only a temporary job. Her “real” job would come after she gets her degree.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see not having a diploma as a handicap. As my opening question shows, there are a lot of people out there who succeed without the degree. It just really depends on what you want to do with your life. Are you going to sit there and let it come at you or are you going to get up and make yourself indispensable?

Employers nowadays do value experience as well as education. Looking at the two careers that dominate my resume, I have experience that a new college graduate would kill for. When I enter a job, I don’t want to just sit around. I want to learn. I guess in essence, I make my job a college classroom. I had no clue how the hotel industry worked when I landed my first job. But I learned everything I could and as quickly as I could. I burned a quick path to advancement. When I got laid off, I had to start all over again in banking. Applying what I learned on my previous job, I brought a unique spin to my new department. Now, I’m happily working away (and nicely compensated) in a division I help build.

My luck can’t last forever. I do want to get my degree and I intend on getting it someday. But I’m willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. The degree is just a small part of the plan. Without the want to succeed, that piece of paper is worthless. And I want it to mean something. I don’t want to graduate because someone told me I had to. I want to complete my education because the one person who has to live with that decision WANTS to.

And that person is me.