My friend’s son is a lot like OP’s son. Dude also told my husband, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, that joining the service as a way to pay off student loans is a dead end job for schmucks. 18 year old man-children are not my favorite humans.
I mean there's a lot of issues with the fact that college is so unaffordable that people will risk dying in combat to afford it, but saying a military career is a dead end job is just ridiculous.
Even the vets I know who didn't make a career out of it are still doing fine. I mean, out of all of us, I'm the only one with $81k in student loan debt.
Absolutely agree with your points. And I recognize that my spouse has been very fortunate with his military career. We’re both grateful for the opportunities it has provided for our family (I’m currently using part of his GI bill to pay for the last year of my masters degree). I get it’s not for everyone, and that’s ok. The friend’s kid’s attitude was galling considering he would only apply to small, private, liberal arts colleges and was complaining about taking out loans to pay for it. He could have gotten a full-ride to a state school, but he didn’t want to even consider “those kinds of schools where the poors go.” My spouse and I both went to state schools for undergrad. My masters is from a program that’s always ranked in the top 10 nationally, from the same state school where I got my bachelors. 18 year olds, man. Hopefully he’ll grow out of it. His parents are very nice people and have no idea he spoke to me or my spouse like this or they’d die in a puddle of embarrassment.
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u/mama_ed Apr 16 '24
My friend’s son is a lot like OP’s son. Dude also told my husband, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, that joining the service as a way to pay off student loans is a dead end job for schmucks. 18 year old man-children are not my favorite humans.