When I began high school in September of 2011, the thought of beginning college was a distant one. Indeed, I had no intention of not going to college. However, I did not put much thought into where I would be going to college, or what I would be studying in college--I had other worries being a freshman.

Sophomore year came and went in a flash, and I continued to believe that college was still a distant life event. My main worries, during my sophomore year, were athletic and social in nature--not so much academic. To be fair, I was--and continue to be--a very diligent and hard-working student. However, as passionate as I was about excelling as a student in and out of the classroom, it was also very important to me that I enhance my athletic performance, and improve my social skills. To be honest, I was a fairly shy person when I was young, and continue to be.

Once my sophomore year ended, I realized that college was not so far away anymore--although many that I knew still thought it was. I really had to try and pinpoint an area of study that would be worthwhile to possibly pursue in college. However, narrowing your interests down to a specific area of study sounds easier said than done. Quite frankly, I did not have difficulty pinpointing my interests. Rather, it was very difficult for me to narrow down my interests to a reasonable short list.

To help me narrow down my interests, I devised a solution: experiment. No, I did not decide to go to a nearby laboratory and conduct scientific experiments. Rather, I decided that I would try and immerse myself in an activity that correlated with the interest I had. For example, since I had a profound interest in politics ever since I was in middle school, I decided to intern at a local congressional district office--the office of former Congressman Rush Holt. In my opinion, completing an internship at a congressional office would be a perfect way to see if studying political science in college--which is what I was aiming for at the time--would be a good or bad choice. For many political science majors, working in the office of a politician is a common work environment. So, what could be better than having time to test the water before having to jump into it?

To my surprise, the narrowing mechanism I was using was working. After completing my internship with Congressman Holt during the summer of 2013, I began to realize that my passion lay in public service. Essentially, majoring in a subject that was political in nature seemed like the perfect choice for me to make to support my passion for public service. However, I still had not decided on what "politically-oriented" subject I would study--I was so close yet so far. For example, I was growing increasingly interested in world affairs, so studying international relations was an option. Moreover, since I had always been a history buff, majoring in history was a top choice of mine. As well as, majoring in political science was an obvious choice. Yet, despite the trouble I was still having choosing a major, I was glad that I at least had a general idea of what field of study I would like to pursue going into my junior year; the year that college searching begins.

Junior year is a busy year for everyone. There are standardized exams to take, demanding classes to manage, and college tasks to complete. For some people, the hardest part about junior year is not taking the SAT or ACT, but rather figuring out first what undergraduate major(s) to pursue, and then what college(s) to apply to. With me, the hardest part, still, was figuring out what undergraduate major I wanted to pursue. Indeed, sophomore year had helped me figure out what general area of study I was most interested in. Yet, I still could not put my finger on a single major that I would be content with studying. And, not only was being undecided frustrating, but I needed to know what my major would be before I could seriously search for schools I wanted to apply to. The first half of junior year was very stressful, to say the least.

During the second half of junior year, I had more time to think about college. I placed almost all of my time and energy into selecting an undergraduate major that most interested me. To do this, I conducted a lot of research. From contacting schools directly and surveying their course descriptions, to speaking with my family and guidance counselor, I put a lot of effort into figuring out what my undergraduate education would look like.

At the very end of my junior year, I made my decision. I decided that I would attend a local community college for two years, and then transfer to a four-year college or university for my last two years. Why did I decide to set my sights on going to community college? Well, for many reasons. For one, I compared the cost of attending community college with the cost of some of the four-year school I was looking at--the difference was expectantly astronomical. Also, I came to the realization attending community college would buy me more time to figure out what specific major I would like to pursue--at a low cost. Moreover, I figured that I would have less student debt if I attended community college for two years, compared to the amount of debt I would have after attending a four-year school for all four years of my undergraduate education. As well as, I would be able to complete almost, if not all of my general education requirements that all undergraduates have to take during the first two years of college--again, at a very low cost.

With the direction that my college education would take squared away, I was able to relax a little. I still visited a few schools during the summer before senior year, and made myself familiar with the application processes for the four-year schools I was originally looking at, but this was all in preparation for the future.

Senior year came and went in a flash. While the majority of my classmates, who were not attending community college, were swamped with college admission and application work, I only had the slight worry of applying for one school. I am not saying this in a bragging way, but it is true that applying to a community college is a lot less aggravating than applying to a school like Harvard. However, once application season ended and everyone received their acceptance letters, senior year was just fantastic.

After I graduated high school in June of 2015, I made sure to enjoy my summer. Since a lot of my friends were going to colleges and universities that were far away from New Jersey, I made sure that I spent a lot of time with them. I also worked a lot during the summer--money is always handy to have. Overall, though, the summer flew by and before I knew it, I was walking to my first college class at 8 AM on a Monday morning in August.

My first semester of college was a challenge for the most part. Not only was the workload a little more intense than high school, but I was also trying to get acquainted with a new school setting. After a while, though, I felt more comfortable academically and socially.

Still, however, I was unsure as to what my major would be when I transferred--I was only buying myself time at the moment. However, at the end of my first semester, I discovered the perfect undergraduate major for me to pursue: public policy. Now, since I knew exactly what my major would be, I felt more secure, confident, and optimistic. I made the right choice.

For me, community college was a great investment.