dropoutdave 0 #1 June 27, 2003 Hey everyone. So, there I was studying my first year in engineering at uni in Liverpool, managed to pass the first lot of exams no problem, then it comes round to the final first year exams...sat there in my room at 4am revising for what I then realise are things i'm not really interested in. Can't really explain what happened next, but a quick phone calll to my parents to say i'm dropping uni, my cars in the newpaper for sale, along with all my guitars, TV and everything I could find that was worth any money. I take out all the money I can from my bank account and max the student overdraft and find myself sat at Heathrow airport trying to find a ticket to Cape Town to do my AFF, having never even done a skydive before. All with in one week of dropping uni. Finally get a ticket and have to spend 2nights on the benches being harrassed by the airport security asking what I was doing. Finally arrive in Cape Town and within a week and a half my AFF was completed and I am now HOOKED!!! Ended up buying myself a new rig over there and a camera helmet and a Sony PC120 (still waiting to be able to jump that thing). I'm still not sure what made me drop everything and decide to do what I did, but it was the best decision I have ever made and I have found what I want to do everyday for the rest of my life. I'm currently stuck back in the UK, with nothing but my rig and camera helmet, working 12hr shifts 7days a week and trying hard to save enough money to do about 400-500 dives and get into tandem/camera. Still along way to go and a lot to learn but it's gonna be fun! It's got me by the balls and i never thought that could be a good thing! Glad to join yall. ------------------------------------------------------ May Contain Nut traces...... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fireflyer 0 #2 June 27, 2003 i am in the same situation now, or contemplating it. i am in aff now and in school, and aff seems to be winning (i am paying for school myself). i am successfully employed tho too, making more than most grads, so thats what killss me... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fireflyer 0 #3 June 27, 2003 ...i would love to hear other's POV on this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jumpergirl 0 #4 June 27, 2003 My parents told me a long time ago that they will never force me to go to college. It isn't for everyone, and if I decied to quit going, that would be fine with them. It has taken me 8 years of going off and on, and I still don't have my Associates degree. I'm working on it, but I don't want to be one of those people whose head is buried in the books stressing over getting it done. I've been happy skydiving, living, and learning from my mistakes. I know have the support if I go to school, and I know it will disappoint my whole family if I never go back to school, but they will support me with that, too. Luckliy, I want to get my degree and I want to finish school. It isn't for everyone... and I will be the first to lobby for you to do what you feel is right and not what you have been told is right. If you think dropping out and spending your life skydiving, or whatever it is that you or anyone else want to do, then DO IT and HAVE FUN!! Just my 2 cents... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mcuk 0 #5 June 28, 2003 That is totally mad (in a good way )!! I'm a great believer in fate....so there must have been somthin tellin ya to quit and go skydiving.... Been jumpin in the uk yet? Don't work too hard! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
robskydiv 0 #6 June 28, 2003 Hi Dave. It sounds like you are willing to work hard to achieve your goals. With this kind of effort, you'll be successul at whatever you do. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dropoutdave 0 #7 June 28, 2003 I managed to do a couple of jumps pretty soon after I came back but then money ran short, it was -18 degrees C up at altitude, just not funny! Think i'm gonna wear a wetsuit next time. ------------------------------------------------------ May Contain Nut traces...... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MikeTJumps 4 #8 June 29, 2003 Long long ago, I was a graduate student in Analytical Chemistry at the Univ. of Houston. In the midst of studying for my Ph.D., I took up skydiving and found something far more rewarding than studying and research. I worked 5.5 years towards getting a Ph.D. but politics and priorities being what they were, I just couldn't please the powers that be to award me that degree. When one of the professors that liked me saw what happened, he asked me to work for him for a year or two and he would make sure I got my Ph.D. I told him something on the order of, "Y'know, I've worked hard on this for 5.5 years, and if the committee doesn't feel that what I've done is good enough, then I think they have their priorities wrong. I've got something more important to do with my life than be a perrenial student, an indentured research servant. I've got a life outside of the lab and a future to pursue. I've had enough of the education circus and I'm going to get on with doing things that are important to me." As such, I took a masters degree for my 5.5 years of effort and became an Instructor Examiner in our sport. That, by the way, has been far more satisfying to me than any Ph.D. would have been.Mike Turoff Instructor Examiner, USPA Co-author of Parachuting, The Skydiver's Handbook Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkymonkeyONE 3 #9 June 30, 2003 It's all relative in the end. You know what, my last five years in the army I made about ten grand per year more than any other member of my extended family and the ALL have at least a masters degree in one discipline or another. This as an enlisted Special Forces soldier, not an officer. I have over three years of college, but none of it, other than my economics courses, made any difference in my post-retirement skydiving carreer. Do what makes YOU happy. No amount of education is going to get you invited on a 100-way or onto one of my BirdMan flocks. If you want to be a professional skydiver, then get the requisite skill set and get to work. My sister with her MSW can not afford to skydive; too bad. Chuck Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skymama 35 #10 July 1, 2003 Welcome to the forums! She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man, because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BBKid 0 #11 July 1, 2003 So, you're from Cleethorpes, eh? You poor bastard! Just kidding bro! Good on you for dropping out when you realised it wasn't for you. I've just frinished Anthropology at Durham, and I've hated it from the second week of second year. If I wasn't locked into housing contracts I would have left long ago. Fair enough, I'm collecting my degree tomorrow, but it really doesn't matter to me, and I wish I'd done what you did! I'm hoping to get my cat 8 in the next couple of weeks, and then I'll almost certainly be visiting your favourite DZ, but in the meantime, jump at Peterlee, it rocks!!! Nick --------------------------- "I've pierced my foot on a spike!!!" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dropoutdave 0 #12 July 1, 2003 So, your from Liverpool eh? That was the very uni I dropped out of!! Used to live off Smithdown Rd, before I breached my contacts. In a way I kind of wish I didnt go to uni because I would have all that money I drank away to spend on jump tickets but I had a wicked time and met some amazing people. No regrets. Are you planning on making this your life now? ------------------------------------------------------ May Contain Nut traces...... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MagicLou 0 #13 July 2, 2003 Quoteit was -18 degrees C up at altitude, just not funny! Think i'm gonna wear a wetsuit next time. WOW. That's positively balmy. I live in Ontario, Canada and when I did my first SL jumps on Feb 15th, it was -35C. (Without windchill factored in). There was just no way of staying warm. Welcome to the DZ.com community.Lou ___________________________________ . . . now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb - Dark Helmet Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nacmacfeegle 0 #14 July 2, 2003 "I'm currently stuck back in the UK, with nothing but my rig and camera helmet, working 12hr shifts 7days a week and trying hard to save enough money to do about 400-500 dives and get into tandem/camera." Dayumm, if you had an engineering degree, and a wee bit of experience, you could be clearing enough to buy a complete rig a month, or a camera a week..... We are howling for experienced engineers right now. Och well "chaque un a son gout" as they say across the channel.... The only thing a qualification actually gives you is choice, it looks like you gave up that choice by choosing your life...ironic really. But you have to chase your dreams...good luck.-------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
outofit 0 #15 July 2, 2003 welcome! It is better to be dead and cool than alive and uncool! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
riggerrob 558 #16 July 8, 2003 So you quit university? So did I my first try. I took off to spend 8 years in the air force. After the first couple of years, it became clear that I was not cut out to be a "lifer," so I started taking night school classes at Saint Mary's University. My last year in the air force, it was race between them completing my release papers before I punched out my lying sack of sh*t of a master warrant officer. Two years later I had a history degree from the University of Ottawa, with a minor in journalism. Ironically, I have hardly used those skills since graduation. However, the degree came in handy when I wanted a visa to work in the USA. When you wave a degree in front of an immigration officer, they roll over backwards. One of our local tandem mistresses has given up her life on the road so she can earn a university degree "that proves I know how to think." That is all a university degree really proves. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
