As I sit and write this, I know already that there will be controversy over what I am about to say because when it comes to education, everyone seems to have very strong opinions. Although I am currently enrolled and pursuing a college degree, I believe attending college is not the only way to live life after high school.

We all grow up being college-bound starting as early as elementary school. I personally remember being in fifth grade and being in the "Michigan State University" classroom. We would talk constantly about what it meant to be college bound and the steps we would have to take in our education to progress through high school and college.

I grew up dreaming about which of all these amazing institutions I would attend when I got older. But as high school came around and eventually started coming to a close, college became less of a dream and more of a scary, stressful reality. Which school will I go? How will I make friends? What do I want to get involved in? and most of all what the heck am I going to major in?

I personally believe it is insane to expect seventeen and eighteen-year-olds to decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives right out of high school.

I am halfway through college and honestly, I still don't know what I want to do with my life. There are times that I think that college may not have been the best choice for me at the time but regardless, here I am. I know many many people who went to college because they had this preconceived idea that it was the only choice they had and they ended up not doing so well and dropping out. College is a huge change and a lot of people can't handle it.

Thankfully there ARE OTHER OPTIONS.

The paths one can take after attending high school are endless; some included are community college, traveling, taking a year off, getting a job, joining the army, going to a trade school and plenty more. These are all great options because it gives you time to figure out the direction you want to lead your life in and can progress you by giving aid to your country, learning a skill and much more. Unfortunately, there is such a misconception that if you don't go to college you will never get a decent paying job and so for survival, people stay away from these other options. I am here to tell you that you can make a decent living and be happy and live a good life even if you do not have a college degree.

College is also crazy expensive. People get themselves into crazy debt because they are convinced that spending a million dollars means they will get a great education. (Community college can be a great choice for education and they usually give more scholarships and are cheaper).

I applied to three schools and prayed that I got some sort of scholarship and ended up having that be a deciding factor in my choice of school. Some families are lucky and don't have to worry about the financial aspect of college but the majority don't have that luxury. Going to college is an investment in your future and sometimes that investment can take a long time to pay off if it does at all.

Now, by no means am I claiming that college is bad and that it should not be looked at for future life plans, all I am saying is that there are other options. College is great for gaining an education, figuring out how to proceed with your life and figuring out what you want to do for work in the future, making friends, connections and much more. I simply make the claim that there are in fact other options.