When I was in high school, teachers and counselors spoke about going to a four-year university directly out of high school so matter-of-factly. We did not think that there was any other way to go about life.
It seemed like there was no other order of life than to:
Graduate from high school. Go directly to a university. Live in a dorm. Have “the college experience???. Graduate in four years. Start your career.
Then, get engaged and married to the person you probably met at said four-year university and have babies, live in a big house with a white picket fence in suburbia and live happily ever after. The end.
If this is truly what will make you happy, and you have the means to do so, more power to you! But if you are unsure about what you want to do when you’re 18 years old and graduating high school, that is also perfectly understandable and extremely common.
What if you aren’t sure a four-year university, or college in general, is for you? What if your family just doesn’t have the financial means for you to go to an expensive college, and you don’t want to end up in debt for ten plus years after graduation?
What if you get a job that you genuinely enjoy and have opportunity to grow without having a degree?
Something they might not tell you in high school: you have options, and you can find success other ways.
You do not have to decide your life path at 18 years old, and the pressure that is put on teenagers to do so is just ludicrous in my opinion.
There are so many ways to go about your life, and sometimes, life just happens. Unplanned events happen.
Maybe you will decide to take a break from school and work full time to make some money because you want to be able to live on your own. Or you might decide that a trade school or a shorter program makes more sense because it is less expensive and less time consuming.
Maybe you will start thinking that paying $80,000 or more for a piece of paper just doesn’t make sense for the kind of life you want to live.
As I said before, if it works for you, that’s great. I’m not saying that college is a total waste of time, or that you don’t learn a ton of valuable life lessons from going.
I am 24 years old. I have been working since high school, working full time since about 19 years old, started managing at the same age, and became a retail store manager at 22. I found full-time employment two weeks after moving to Denver last year.
While I did attend college part time for most of the time that I was working, I, currently have no degree past my high school diploma.
I have decided to give it another try after over two years of just working full time. College can be a wonderful thing for people, but that doesn’t mean it is your only option, or that there aren’t dozens of ways to get a degree.
You have one life; do with it what you please and do what makes sense for you. Do your research before you make a decision, you don’t have to just fall in line with the norm.
As long as you are happy with what you are doing, are able to have a roof over your head and food on the table, you are doing perfectly fine.
Remember: A piece of paper will never define your intelligence level, character, work ethic, or overall worth.