Were you forced to go to College right after high school? Did you feel pressure from your peers and parents? You are not alone. The social norm is to graduate high school and immediately move on to college and if you decide that route isn’t for you, people are quick to judge. At the delicate age of 17 you are expected to make one of the biggest decisions of your life, and that is what do you want to do with your life? I dropped out of college my sophomore year because I couldn’t take on the workload of having a job and going to school. It takes a lot of adjusting moving out of your parents house into your own (for those of you who didn’t live in dorms) having to pay your own bills and go to school full time. It wasn’t the right time in my life because I didn’t have the discipline to balance the life expected of me. I knew I wanted to go to College it was just a matter of when. Now at age 28 I have a whole different perspective on education. The only reason I come to school is to learn. Not to socialize or impress people by the way I look. I now have a complete understanding of how to balance each aspect of my life.
If you gave a 17 year old $5,000 do you think they are going to spend it on the necessities? Rent, Food, Bills, School books. Sure, some of the money will go toward those things, but how can you trust someone so young with that kind of money. Financial aid money is being used on spring breaks, new clothes, and whatever other odds and ends college kids think they need. The money goes to waste and then when someone decides to go back to college, they are $25,000 in debt with nothing to show for it.
Even if your 17 year old self is mature and ready to take on the responsibility of going to college, what if as you get older your major doesn’t interest you anymore and you have to start all over? There are plenty of kids who start off College with a set plan. What major they are going to study, the classes that need to be taken and how long it will take them to graduate, but a lot of people end up working in a field that makes them unhappy. They end up going back to school and spending even more money when in reality they should’ve just waited a couple years to figure out themselves and find what makes them happy.
Whether you want to travel the world, or work at your town’s local restaurant to save up money, it’s your life and you need to figure out your own happiness. College isn’t going anywhere and there will be many opportunities for you to get an education. Discovering yourself is the only way to find your true happiness so why rush that?
