I posted this in general nursing a month or so ago and got no feedback so I thought going more local would help.
So my story is that I'm a 29yr old male, married, homeowner, 2 dogs and no kids yet, now for the last 18months or so I've had my heart set of nursing school and had been slowly working on the prereq's to even apply for school, 3 almost down and 3 more to go. I was passionate about it and happy that finally I could pursue a career that I wanted to do and not that boring office job that I needed to pay the bills. My passion for nursing gradually faded and finally about 2 months ago I was presented the opportunity to apply for a skilled trade apprenticeship job, now I never did get a callback on it, but it got me thinking. I like the trades, I like working with my hands and I'm good at it, but never considered a career in it until now.
Now this is where you put yourself in my shoes. I still want to be a nurse, the job itself focuses on many of my values mind the shift work, but the road to get there is the concern. My wife and I have a mortgage, a house that we keep dumping money into and a large $30,000 line of credit debt mostly from our home that we are slowly trying to pick away at. Financially for us to afford me in school we would need to take on 2 roomates, we have 1 now and its working great, but another one not sure, and I would have to work a part-time job. That would put us in the green, but tuition would need to be borrowed:cry: adding to our debt. After that comes the fact that I hate school, I'm not an acedemic and that can already been seen in that I hate doing my prereq courses, sure I'm doing great in them (mid 80's), but its a chore for me to do. Reading is something I have little interest in too and the idea of sitting through hours of lectures bores me. The thought of school stresses me out sometimes too. Lastly is the fact that we would like to have kids in a couple years, but we don't want to have to wait 5yrs until we can, I'll be 35 by then and all my friends are having or have kids.
Forgot to mention that I likely won't be able to have the time nor the money to keep with my love of mountain biking, that is a big bummer too.
In general I'm concerned that life will be hell, money will be a constant stress, no chance for a vacation or newer car or anything thats not a neccessity and unexpected expenses are going to hurt ( 2 dogs means lots of vet bills, $1500 surgery 2 weeks ago), with a part-time job and full time school I don't see there being any freetime and I worry about my marriage in the long run too. Not having the chance to start a family is a concern too and just the overall feeling that life is on hold until school is done it going to be a burden. So when I think of all that the idea of getting into the skilled trades seems like a much more attractive idea, now I realize going into that field will be no easy task, pay cuts and starting at the bottom is a concern, but its doable. My goal is just to have a job that is a challenge and keeps me out of an office environment.
linzz
931 Posts
Best of luck to you Guvner.