I never wanted to go to college. I wanted to travel the world and see and experience everything we are offered because I knew there was so much more to life than to be thousands of dollars in debt just to do the same thing day in and day out. So, I took a year off and moved to Colorado. I quickly realized that working 40+ hours a week for $10 an hour was not the life I wanted to live, but now as a second-year-student at Shippensburg University, I'm finding out that that is exactly what I should have continued doing.

I'm an English major. So, basically, I'm paying thousands of dollars to be in a book club, but with pretentious leaders. I'm not learning any kind of skill or trade. I'm spending hours reading novels and writing papers, for what? I love to read and I love to write and that's why I changed my major from Elementary Education to English, but I am quickly seeing that there is no point in any of this. We sit in class and listen to a professor tell us what the author "truly meant", but if you voice any kind of opinion, it's normally the wrong answer. Being an English major I'm sure means many different things to each and every person, but to me, it's a waste of time.

Changing my major, of course, is an option, but I'm already in too deep. If I changed my major I would be behind and have to stay an extra year, which means more money, and that's the last thing I want to do. I want to get my degree and move on with life because I believe this is truly one big scam. I'm paying thousands and thousands of dollars for I'm not exactly sure what. I'm forced to take different classes in different subjects, but I've never actually really learned anything. I can't remember anything I learned last semester, everything has been memorization just to get an "A" in the class. I'm paying thousands of dollars for a piece of paper so I can get a job that pays $16 an hour. If I would have stayed at my job working $10 I would have made out better in long run.

I was told by so many people that going to college was the right thing to do, that I would love it, and that it's so much better than high school. In these last two years, I have found that all of those statements have been false, for me. I never liked school. I don't believe sitting in a classroom is the way to learn and I think it's a waste of our time here on Earth. Shippensburg University is worse than I ever imaged it to be. The cliques are inseparable and there is absolutely nothing to do except drink on Richard Avenue. So not only am I paying thousands of dollars for a useless degree, but I'm not even able to enjoy my time while I'm here, wasting away four years of my life.

I do not blame people who have attempted college and did not complete it. And the people who never even attempted it, I think they have the right idea.