As we gear up to go back to classes and read endless articles about school supplies and watch YouTubers make videos about dorm decor, I want to address those who are not going to school.
Whether you never went, are taking a semester off, or have graduated, I want to let you know it's OK not to go to school. We have all let our FOMO get the best of us and our anxieties about not achieving our goals haunt us.
Back in 2016, I didn't attend college for a year and I suffered a deep depression because I felt I would never achieve the plans I had planned since the beginning of high school. It was devastating and I wasn't happy, but I learned a lot about myself and I grew in all aspects of my life.
If you're not going back to school, I urge you to spend time with yourself. Take yourself on dates, read books, eat ice cream, realize what you want from life, and work hard towards accepting that there are many paths to success.
My mom has always said something that has stuck with me, "hay muchos caminos para llegar a Roma." In English, it means, "There are many paths to Rome."
This is important to note because everyone thinks that after high school, college follows, you graduate at 21, and then you find a career. This is a LIE! Why? Because we are all different. Some people are doing double majors while some struggle with courses.
We cannot judge someone else's life journey and that is also something I learned in 2016. I thought I had to follow these set rules, and not achieving them put me and my mental health at risk. I wasn't happy and my family could tell and it affected me as a being.
If you read all these articles and watch all the videos of people getting ready to go back to school, my advice is to take a deep breath and realize that it's OK not to know the next step. It's perfectly fine to not know or have all the answers to life. We are just figuring it out and it's natural not to know.
