Get by

A young man and woman fretting over money.
It’s hard to get by, sometimes.

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Word of the Day: Get by

If you go to university or attend some other form of postsecondary education, you do so because you want to do more than get by.

What do I mean by that?

I mean that you want to make money.


When you get by, you can live and feed yourself but not much else.


After putting in the blood, sweat and tears required to attain a degree, people expect to earn a salary that will make them comfortable.

Unfortunately, too many people realize that is a pipe dream.

We saw it with The Great Resignation.

Millions of Americans and Canadians, to a much lesser degree, were fed up with just getting by.

When you get by, you can live and feed yourself but not much else. 

As a child growing up in a traditional family setting with five kids, a stay-at-home mother and a father working in a blue-collar job, we just got by.

Yes, my father was a good provider.

We were never hungry, cold or going without the necessities.

However, if it was extra, we didn’t have it.

There were no family trips to Disneyland, takeout dinners, or extras of any kind.

We got by – just.

I’m sure that’s why many people do their best to attain higher education – they want to do more than get by.

That’s also why many people study English as a second language or study English to improve their already substantial skillset.

Getting by is fine when that’s all you can do, but why settle for less if all it takes to achieve more is for you to work a little harder and burn the midnight oil a few nights a week to improve your prospects?

If you’re not satisfied with getting by, make it happen.  


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test  

This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).   

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 72.   

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100. 



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