What’s more important: money or happiness?
In this week’s issue of Cardinal Points, staff writer Thomas Marble reported on the relationship between adjuncts and the colleges they work for.
As Marble noted throughout the article, professors don’t make exorbitant amounts of money, and adjuncts make even less. Adjuncts who teach a full course load make only slightly more than $20,000 annually.
What drives most to the teaching profession isn’t the salary — it’s loving what they do.
Cardinal Points holds the belief that adjuncts are wholly underappreciated for their work. It’s nearly impossible that an adjunct doesn’t care about his or her work.
Ignoring what students learn from the course material, perhaps the most important thing to take away from your adjuncts is how to look at life.
Let’s be frank — there isn’t a person in the world who wouldn’t like to have more money. However, is sacrificing true happiness in a profession worth the additional salary?
Some would likely say yes. However, we at Cardinal Points suggest that students reevaluate that mindset.
Comprised of mostly journalism students, the staff of Cardinal Points aren’t in the field to get rich (and if they are, they’re woefully misguided). In fact, journalism students typically accept that we aren’t going to land our dream job, or even one in the field, right out of college.
Some people might see that as pessimism — and to some extent, they’re probably right. But in a lot of ways, carrying that mindset around is more about being realistic than anything.
It isn’t the easiest reality to have, and it doesn’t just apply to journalism. The job market simply isn’t an ideal place right now for college students. Is it hopeless? Not at all, but the path to success isn’t as clear as it has been in the past.
That means we’re left with a decision to make about what’s more important to us — making a lot of money, or picking a career that brings us happiness?
Cardinal Points believes in making the latter the biggest priority. If you’re in a major you aren’t passionate about, why not change before it’s too late? This is a time of self-expression and finding your passions in life.
Realize that if you greatly dislike a majority of the classes in your major, money likely won’t offset that feeling when you’re doing it for a living. That doesn’t really sound like the best way to spend the rest of your life.
And you know what? Those adjuncts just may have had the right idea all along.
