Does this ever make you angry?--VENT

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Ok, so most of my friends aren't nurses. I went to a regular university and enjoyed the college experience. All my friends graduated around the same time as me with different degrees, and now are finding it hard to get jobs. Many of them chose to drink and rack up debt during college, dumbing down degrees when they got to a class they couldn't pass. One of my closest friends actually racked up 70 grand in loans and graduated with a degree in sociology. The other day she told me "I should be doing a lot better than this because I graduated college!" She then tells me how she did just as much as me and should be making more than $9 an hour at fed-ex!

I found this to be a slap in the face to all the hard work I had to put into actually applying myself during my college years!! I worked hard, made great grades to keep all my scholarships and graduate with NO debt and did lots of extras to get good recommendation letters to get into a great hospital and work in critical care, an area which I love. I still am working extremely hard since I have only been an RN for 6 months. I still go home and study, I work extra to get more experience, I am studying for my CCRN to be the best nurse I can be. And all she can do is smoke her cigarette drink her beer and cry about how she doesnt make $20 an hour (like its nearly enough sometimes). Does anyone else ever get comments like this from old college buddies? Its enough to make me sick!

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

just thank your lucky stars that you became a nurse. they had choices too and they made the wrong one's. basically, too bad, it's their problem. don't let them drag you down. be proud of being a nurse whenever you're around them. you'll be a shinning example. you go girl!

btw my dd got her bs in fashion merchandising. mama tried to reason with her. she graduated with no debt. we paid it all. after 4 years of working for $10-12 dollars an hour in a large retail store, a bank, and a grocery store, she has finally come to her good senses and decided to go back to school. she is taking her pre req's to begin the doctorate in physical therapy program in august. it will take her another 2 years. she said to me "mama i should have listened to you when you were paying". sweet music to my ears. now she counsels her brother to do the same.

best of luck to you hon, you've got it all together! :yeah:

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Specializes in Trauma ICU, Surgical ICU, Medical ICU.
just thank your lucky stars that you became a nurse. they had choices too and they made the wrong one's. basically, too bad, it's their problem. don't let them drag you down. be proud of being a nurse whenever you're around them. you'll be a shinning example. you go girl!

btw my dd got her bs in fashion merchandising. mama tried to reason with her. she graduated with no debt. we paid it all. after 4 years of working for $10-12 dollars an hour in a large retail store, a bank, and a grocery store, she has finally come to her good senses and decided to go back to school. she is taking her pre req's to begin the doctorate in physical therapy program in august. it will take her another 2 years. she said to me "mama i should have listened to you when you were paying". sweet music to my ears. now she counsels her brother to do the same.

best of luck to you hon, you've got it all together! :yeah:

lol very similar to myself actually. i told my mom i wanted to get a degree in journalism and she said absolutely not. she was an rn and told me that she wouldn't help pay for a degree that i problably wouldnt use or would be lucritive. i am glad i listened, and now my 'knack' for writing is more of a hobby and i have truly come to love nursing. sometimes mama knows best lol! :D

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.

I have a friend with a business degree that makes the same as I do. In ten years his salary will probably FAR surpass mine. Also, his job has way more perks. I'm kind of jealous. Plus the corp he works for is paying for 50% of his MBA and in the meantime he has a cushy job......

I also have a friend with an english bachelor's degree, who was making $9 an hour for a long time after graduating (by his own choice...he wanted to work in the legal field). He's getting ready to get his graduate school degree in law in May; and has several jobs lined up at different law firms to choose from.

Honestly I haven't had any friends complain about their degrees or jobs. I think business/english degrees are pretty good to have. In all honesty if I hadn't gone for nursing I probably would have done business myself. It's not about choosing a bad degree, it's just about how hard you want to work to get to where you want to be, and having a clear plan and set of goals for the future.

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Specializes in Everytype of med-surg.

This may sound horrible, but it makes me happy :chuckle to see them struggle a little. I probably didn't pick the best friends in college. I hung out with people who had a lot more money than I did and didn't seem to put much thought into whether their major was going to be conductive to finding a job that would support themselves after college. I knew that my family couldn't help me financially with another degree or pay my bills after college. Therefore, I found a degree that I know would help me be self-sufficient. Did I get upset when they partied every night while I had to go to be early to be up for clinicals. Yes, I am ashamed at how jealous I was. However, 75% of them now are either in a dead end job or are back in school to get a different degree. Yes, they had alot more fun than I did in college, however they are a good four years behind me career wise.

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Specializes in ICU/CCU/CVICU.

Isn't that just the most annoying?? Every aspect of nursing is mentally and physically challenging. I'm sorry to say, but, unless you are a nurse, you just DON'T GET IT!! I have very awesome friends, don't get me wrong, but I have completely stopped mentioning anything about my job. They just don't get it! All they see is I'm making "big bucks" and I only work 3 12 hour shifts a week! What a joke! I had one friend told me she could switch jobs with me at any time---3 12's are easy! As accountants, Financial advisors, engineers, etc, they can never grasp the degree of stress that we experience. I'm not trying to make myself or my job untouchable in any way, but the multitude of issues that we deal with just doesn't compare. Add to that the seriousness of our job, and we've pretty much alien-ated (sp?) ourselves from the non-nursing world, as far as career discussions go. I mean--mess up on some taxes and you're in some serious trouble...but make a medication error and it could be fatal. This is definitely my soap box and I could go on and on. :banghead:

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