It's your senior year of high school and all around you, your classmates are buzzing with excitement. What is the excitement about? College acceptances! Your friends, athletes, and classmates all around you are announcing the big name universities they have applied and been accepted to. In all the commotion you can't help but feel excited for them as well. But what happens when you go home and family and friends start asking you where you are going? What happens when you have known since the beginning of junior year that you are going to a community college or the "13th grade" as others call it?

I'll tell you what happens, people around you smile and change the subject. Or they ask "why?" and say that it is a terrible idea. They tell you that you are making a mistake and that if you don't go straight off to a university, you will never have a degree or a good job as other people that went straight to a university. I'm here to tell you that they are wrong.

There is no shame in going to community college for two years. In fact, if you are not quite sure what you want to major in or do when you graduate then it is the perfect time to find out. Community college gives you 2 extra years to find out what you like to learn about, what you like to do, and what you see yourself doing in the future.

Not to mention, community college gives you the chance to save up money for two years. That way when you graduate, you can go off to a big name university and not have to take as many loans out had you went straight there. The best part of going to a community college is that after your two years there you complete all your prerequisite classes, you also graduate with an associates degree.

After you can find a "big university" that accepts your college credits that you have already completed and transfer right over. You complete your junior and senior year there and graduate with a bachelors degree. The best part is no one ever has to know you went to a community college if you don't want them to.

Community college is not a bad thing. In the end, you will save money and will probably be much happier. Let's throw away the stigma. Let's start giving kids that are confused about where they should go and what they should do, the option of going to community college.