The topic of college makes us both unbelievably anxious, as I’m sure you are aware, but the roots of our various concerns differ. I, terrified of pursuing a monotonous and unfulfilling existence, desperately want to experience college out of the United States, and immerse myself into an entirely new culture as I yearn to satisfy my educational destiny. You, terrified of allowing your fragile, beloved eldest daughter anywhere out of your immediate sight, desperately want me to play it safe and stay close to home for the majority of my college experience. Discussing college is always a point of contention in our household, so it’s often avoided. However, as I near the end of my junior year of high school, addressing my future plans is becoming inevitable. So, I need to put something to rest. It is your prevailing belief that I want to go to college far away from home because I am trying to get far away from you and my family, or that I have a problem with America, or that I would be going to simply enjoy myself and not apply myself in school and get my degree. All of this is untrue. I feel as though we all owe it to ourselves to experience the world through a different lens. I, having lived my whole life in the ultra-sheltered John’s Creek/Roswell area, have essentially been deprived of these genuine, real-world exploits. The farthest I’ve traveled out of the country was Canada. I haven’t even left the continent. Even if we had traveled to a foreign country as a family, I assume we would’ve been there for a short period of time, acting as tourists, and not truly enmeshing ourselves in a way of life so vastly different than our own.

One of the most hypocritical aspects of man, especially in America, is that we hammer it into our children’s minds that they can and should do anything they set their mind to. That their dreams are always within arm’s length if they are determined enough to reach them. That you can go against the grain of society and endeavor to mold yourself as a true individual. That you can do things differently than your friends or parents and discover your own purpose. But, actions speak louder than words. The true sentiments that our children are being relentlessly indoctrinated with at a dangerously young age, is that life really is a set path. That you can find yourself as an individual, but only within the confines of a perfectly carved box. You go to elementary school, then middle school, then high school. Afterwards, you have to go to college immediately, preferably somewhere in the states, because that’s just practical. Taking a gap year to travel or save money or find yourself is taboo, because you’re wasting precious time that you could be using to get your degree as quickly as possible, so you can begin working as quickly as possible. So many of us throwing ourselves in jobs we quickly become complacent in, lacking the ability to derive any real struggle or passion from our work, because we simply need to get by. Every single one of us has dreams, some more attainable than others, but all feasible with the right mentality. It seems like most people are are trapped in this virulent mindset that they cannot blaze the trail for their own journey. That there’s a predetermined path for all of us to take. I rarely come across an adult that doesn’t have regrets about not traveling or having real-world experiences while they had the opportunity, when they were young, without any concrete responsibilities, and had the unfettered capability to reinvent themselves at any time, without consequence.

I’m not asking to forego college or drop out of high school to travel aimlessly around the world for two years. I’m asking for you to expand your horizons and understand that there has to be more to life than following a preset idea of what should be done in order to ensure my economic stability and independence in a few years. I’m asking to go somewhere that would not only enable me to receive the education I need to be successful in the future, but also enable me to do something interesting, something that will quite possibly better me as a person and give me the true skills I need to ensure not only monetary success, but my emotional, intellectual, and spiritual success as well. There’s something to be said for wanting to further my global understanding by being proactive and discovering different cultures firsthand. Everyone claims they want to do something unique and special, but a very limited number of people actually go out and take the initiative they need to experience life in a new way. All I ask of you is to take a leap of faith, and start opening your mind to the options that exist. I am capable of doing great things, even if the journey I go on isn’t as predictable as the majority of the populaces’.