BA in BS?

Communication Studies - my undergraduate degree. It also happens to be one of those degrees in which the moment you drop the title all heads will tilt and then: “Oh, that's interesting...and so what is that exactly?” What a good question – Communication Studies – yes, what is that? I graduated just under 5 years ago and today I still can’t honestly tell you what it really means with much confidence. I can, however, tell you with complete confidence that I'm a college graduate. I met all the requirements to obtain a degree recognized by some high board of intellectuals who have been given, almost mystically, the authority to determine who gets that little piece of paper with the gold seal. Hooray, I have a golden ticket!

The problem is what in the world does this golden ticket get me? I mean, I am now fully qualified to hold any number of middle management positions for the rest of my life. Good times. But did I really push through 4 years of college to now sit in a small cubicle, all day, rattling off the same speech over and over to convince some administrative person that yes, receipts are required for reimbursements. I mean really, are you serious?

Truth is, even though I sometimes question the practical implications of my degree I don't really feel like it was waste at all. I enjoyed my educational pursuits very much. All my upper division classes were filled with theory, in-depth reasoning, and discussion. It was brain heaven and I soaked up every minute of it. There were a lot of other things too; like how to live off $5 a week, that contributed marvelously to my overall development. There is no telling where I'd be without this degree but the struggle now is that I feel as if my job, the job I got because of the degree, has put me in brain hell. I've got to get out. So the real question is - what do you do with a degree you enjoyed obtaining but that doesn't put you anywhere in the real world you want to be? My flawed solution - graduate school. And so it begins again.