When thinking of the economy, the first thing that comes to my mind is having a job and making money.  And then, after a long trail of slightly related thoughts, I thought of the question that I have had posed to me a bunch of times- would you rather make more money at a job you hate or a lot less money at a job you love?  I thought about myself, a student here at UD in his first year studying civil engineering, and I do not know the answer.  I have always heard that engineering students make a lot of money, but will it be something I will enjoy doing every day for the next 40 years?  I had a quiz in my solid mechanics class earlier today, and while I was preparing, I kept thinking about how much I want to be done with this class.  But then again, it is literally a civil engineering specific class.  Am I condemning myself in the future to a job I will hate because I am too greedy to make money?  Or am I way overthinking it because I am not a fan of one class?  I do not know the answers.  On the other hand, however, it is what I am best at, and would going another route be a waste of talent?  I am not wise enough to answer these now, so I asked my friends what their perspectives on the question are. 

The results were not surprising to me.  They were mixed, as one would likely expect.  The first kid I asked said “Enjoy what you do because you’ll make more money doing what you love than what you hate”, which is what I feel like most parents would tell their kids.  The next person I asked responded with something similar, saying “I’d rather be happy than miserable and if u know how to save money you’ll be rich”. The third and fourth people I asked did not share the same beliefs.  They both said they would rather make more money with a less enjoyable job, with the fourth saying he would “rather suffer during the day but be able to live comfortably financially”.

There is no right or wrong answer.  It changes person by person, and an individual’s response will probably change at some point in their life.