I remember what it was like my senior year of high school.

From school announcements to conversations all the way up to graduation, it was all about where all of my friends had been accepted to spend their next four (or so) years of their life.

Universities.

Smaller colleges.

Community college.

And I found myself in such a weird battle of thought. I found myself wondering two things.

As an artist (writer and photographer), what would be the best route to take for schooling?

Is college really for me?

And then I realized quickly that life often answers the hard questions with quick and clear answers.

I realized that as somebody who loves learning, the most rapid learning I experienced was when I was hands-on, learning things kinesthetically, and there was a sort of value I attained when I reached a higher level of knowledge as a photographer and blogger, and the ins and outs of online marketing and networking instilled a level of pride and excitement in myself and my work.

I was actually proud of myself for growing and self-teaching.

And please don’t get me wrong, I highly respect the many people I know who are in higher education now or have graduated already that are doing incredible, incredible things. I know they are proud of all that they have accomplished and everything they had to endure to reach the success they have achieved.

I’ve just come to a place of recognizing that going to college isn’t the only avenue to attain success, and it’s not always for everyone.

It wasn’t for me, and that’s okay.

I have a handful of friends who realized it wasn’t for them either, so I decided to interview them and ask them the simple question of “why wasn’t college for you?” and see what their careers look like being self-taught and not attending college for their vocations.

Zach Bloom, filmmaker (21)

“I was pursuing a filming career and I had an internship in high school where I learned a lot about filming. I got to the point where I had a lot of friends who were in film school, and weren’t doing anything with their career by the third year, so I decided that I wanted to save myself from entering into thousand dollars of debt when I already had the many skills from the internship and the equipment, and so I decided to try my best and go for it. Since then I’ve been learning what it means to network, which has provided me with a lot of amazing opportunities which has pushed me farther in my filming career than most of my friends who went to film school who have not graduated yet. I am debt free, self sustaining, and only work around seven days a month.”

Cassidy Cooper, jewelry maker (20)

“When I wanted to go to college originally, I wanted to go to art school. At the time I was a painter and I didn’t want to pay $50,000 a year doing what I already did everyday. The areas of work that I knew I was going to get into are not things that require a college degree, so I preferred finding centers that specified in the crafts and techniques that I wanted to learn, and learn from people who do it everyday just like professors would, and be able to work at my own pace and do one or two classes at a time and meet different people, and that was my college experience. Instead of attending an actual college, I thought it would be more beneficial to start my own company and learn as I went that way.”

Dani Engel, florist (21)

“I didn't go to college because school didn't push me forward - it hindered more than it helped. I went for a little bit, but decided to stop and became extremely productive pursuing what I knew I wanted to do; because that’s what college is - to discover what you love and what you want to do with your career. I knew I was able to narrow down a little bit because I was already working with coffee and loved it, but knew I wanted to create more and didn’t have financial sustainability to go to art school. So I asked myself what the point was of spending time learning pre-requisites that don't affect my career when I could get started now, and one thing somebody told me was that I could always go back. I talked to other florists and each one said that a degree wasn’t necessary, so I chose to get started.”

Natalie Bruno, photographer and graphic designer (21)

“I am a kinesthetic learner—I need to be doing something to really learn, or see somebody do them to learn. Sitting in a classroom doesn’t benefit me at all. A side effect of being a kinesthetic learner though is when I am sitting in a classroom, I find myself moving around a lot because I need to be active to pay attention which is really distracting to others. Another reason was that I just didn’t like school.”

Concluding these interviews, I was encouraged by the fact that I wasn't the only young person who decided to walk down the road of self-teaching. As a nineteen-year-old trying to navigate the waters of networking and starting photography projects early on by booking weddings, portraits, and writing for my own blog as well as contributing to the Odyssey community, I find myself excited for my future. I find myself immersed in my passions, and have gotten more impressed responses of my progress than I have received disappointed ones, which is contrary to what I had expected.

But even still, I found myself realizing that it's not about the responses of those around you and trying to please every individual in your life, but to dial into what you feel called to spend your life doing, and if it doesn't require a degree, knowing that it's okay to pursue it whole-heartedly.

Knowing fully that other's affirmations shouldn't be placed on your classes.

Knowing fully that your value doesn't stem from a piece of paper, and never will.