To be honest, I'm not entirely sure of what I want to do for the rest of my life. Expanding my corporate career and climbing the corporate ladder for the rest of my life isn't that exciting to me. Then again, I'm needing that career to pay for the traveling lifestyle I want to live… oh the choices to make.

Coincidentally, a friend of mine who is still in school is wondering what is more stressful: working or school? My answer: work. Work provides so many variables one cannot control-of course you have your own responsibilities to focus on but you also have co-workers, subordinates, management, etc to rely on and you can't force them to go at your pace. In college, you have set deadlines and you can choose to procrastinate and stress yourself out or adequately prepare for those deadlines.

Yes, beards happen while camping or during long fishing trips. I am privy to many people who find men engaging in traditionally masculine activities in which a beard occurs as a by-product quite sexy; they're called women.

As a man, I am more interested in appealing to that demographic of the female gender whose tastes have evolved past the Twilight series and Dierks Bentley. Those still mired in the fascination with those are what we refer to as girls. Maybe they are into boys that spend their entire night fancying themselves in a mirror, but I know my significant other wouldn't be very elated if I seemed more interested in myself than her.

I'm not condoning a complete lack of upkeep with one's facial hair, but it doesn't take a 7 step guide to know how to trim up some stray barbs. If one were to exercise an exorbitant amount of effort, like you seem to be suggesting, one ends up with something that looks like a chinstrap or a line beard. If a man were to follow your guide then any passerby could tell that you are trying way to hard to have a beard. Maybe some girls like that. And maybe those girls still can't understand why the OC got canceled. I guess the point I'm trying to make there is that they're the same girls.

Facial hair grows regardless of mission statement, business plan or “expert advice” from someone who already has a beard. The day a man needs a guide on how to allow his hair to grow is the day he no longer a man who can bait his own hook.

By no means are all those with unkempt beards meat-heads, as you retort. I know how to quilt, enjoy birdwatching and learned how to waltz with no fear of recourse concerning my masculinity. But I fear that if I dedicated the amount of time to my beard as you suggest then I would find it difficult to show my “bearded” face around either men or women.

In the words of Dallas Braden, you appear to be tasting yourself a little too long.

I think you're hairy and hot.

Love,

Andrea

And I think you might have some inner complexes that you should work on before you go spouting off at the mouth to people you know nothing about. Look up Metrosexual…go ahead, I will wait…

Wanting to look nice with a beard makes someone neither a bear or gay. Just a thought…

If you've made a conscious decision to grow a beard, stop now. Beards should appear by happenstance after hygienic neglect. A 7 step guide to growing one is wholly antithetical to what a beard symbolizes.

However, there are some men who have beards for different reasons and may find your guide useful. They're called bears…and they're gay.

Good luck with your journey with organic eating and thanks for sharing about it!

First, no one cares if you have a bachelors in general liberal arts subjects, because essentially, you will need in-depth training in whatever job you go into after undergrad. Let's face it, the general B.S./B.A. has become the new high school diploma. Once you have it, you will merely pass through initial job recruiters screening. To expound upon this point, if you have a general Communications, English, History, or other humanities degree you usually do not have skills, abilities, or knowledge that will set you apart from other candidates. Unless you have relevant job experiences or the “right” connections, then you will likely not be an attractive candidate (especially in this job market). Graduate school, whichever type you go to, will provide you with more specialized skills, which will set you apart, at least somewhat, from other job candidates. Additionally, many jobs, career level jobs, have a bachelors as a minimum requirement, but not as the desired degree. Usually, some sort of advanced degree or specialty certification is desired for these positions.

Second, graduate school may not be for everyone, but it's not as difficult as it may seem. I have seen many individuals in MBA, Law, Ed.d, MSW, and other M.S/M.A. programs who were not the top students in their undergraduate classes. At the graduate school level, you really only need to be of a sufficient intelligence, and then everything else is driven by motivation. I have seen graduate students with lower mental ability succeed based on motivation, while simultaneously seeing brilliant individuals fail because a lack thereof.

Lastly, research indicates individuals with advanced degrees make drastically more over the course of their career. Additionally, individuals holding advanced degrees are promoted faster and to higher levels. Taken together, it would seem spending $50,000 on an advanced degree is a small price for $500,000 in greater earnings over the course of 20 years. Also, as MTK mentions, many assistantship opportunities exist, which can provide some or all of a student's tuition.