Message to my son (Arian Rodriguez) about college
Hey Ari,
When you turn 17–18 I assume you will get to a point where you are almost graduating high school and need to think about what’s next. If your experience turns out to be the opposite of mine you will know exactly what you want to do next and next steps on how to get there.
That wasn’t the case for me. High school was one of the easiest challenges for me to overcome. The courses were pretty straight forward and as long as I spent about 45 minutes per night to work on my homework I passed my courses. I didn’t pass with an A+ or high GPA but I got by without losing the ability to enjoy myself and my friendships and avoided the stress about grades as some classmates of mine would experience. I was a social kid and teachers were fascinated by my ability to be able to interrupt class just enough to avoid getting in trouble but just enough to where I was enjoying myself and kept the class engaged throughout some of the boring subjects.
Essentially things were fun and easy and stress-free I didn’t know what I wanted to do next.
I went to college because your grandparents told me to as a result of your aunt Gaby going to Northwestern. She’s always been a studious person and would stress out about grades at times (the opposite of me). So I went to appease your grandparents wanting both of their kids to go to college.
It wasn’t a bad experience however after a year of going to college and passing my general education courses easily I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.
Your grandma started suggesting to me what to major in (Be a Teacher) and that’s when I realized I should stop spending my parents money on college without knowing what the end goal would be. We didn’t have much money to spend like that and I started feeling guilty.
I decided to drop out on my 2nd year of college. I gave it a shot and still was not sure what I wanted to do so I decided I should try to figure it out on my own some other way.
Luckily I got a job as a customer service representative at Redbox when it was still a startup. I told friends and family that I worked for a company that would dispense DVDs for $1 a night. People would tell me “that company is gonna flop” or “Yeah look for a backup plan because that may not be around for too long”. Essentially they thought it was not a stable business plan.
Those same individuals ended up being people that asked me for promo codes and free rentals a year later.
While working at Redbox I realized I have a knack for learning software quickly and had a natural ability to lead by example. I like helping people and I enjoy making sure everyone is aligned on the same goal.
People told me to go into IT or Project Management but I had no idea what that was or what it meant.
I had to leave Redbox due to them outsourcing the customer service department and letting go of the whole customer service team. However I had a full year to find my next job as a result of the severance package. I decided to just start applying for IT and Tech Support type of jobs. I figured if I was patient enough and dedicated enough, I can get experience and skip the college process.
8 years later and a few IT / Network Support jobs under my belt, I landed on my dream job. I’m now a product manager for an awesome and progressive product team. I wake up every day challenged and enjoying the process of solving the daily problems of building new products for a company. Couple this with the fact that I now see you an extra day a week as of this month, I am truly living the dream.
The moral of the story is, give college a shot Ari. At least try it for a year.
If you don’t like it after a year that’s ok, you can still find your way. No harm, no foul. I just want you to know that regardless of knowing what you need to do next…if you have faith in yourself and your ability to figure things out, you’ll be ok.
Also just to be clear, dropping out of college after a year is OK but dropping out of high school is not. That stuff is way too easy to screw it up.
Love,
-Dadida
