Some thoughts on college

          Alright so anyone that is friends with me on Facebook can't say they didn't see this post coming, yeah that's right this post is all about college and more importantly why I feel like college happens at the wrong time in students' lives. Now don't get me wrong I'm all about college, and I know the value of a college education is worth more than just about anything in this era and economy, but what I don't understand is who decided that the majority of students should go straight from high school to college after which they're going to "enter the real world."

            Now I don't know about other people but growing up I always knew exactly what I wanted to be... or thought I did, and for almost 19 years I stuck with it; I knew that I wanted to go to a school associated with an amazing medical school, major in biology, graduate medical school with high board exams, and become a psychiatrist, my plan was simple...until it wasn't. So okay I did get into a great school, with one of the best medical schools in the country, Temple, but when I started taking my major classes, my results (and gpa) was less than thrilling. So then I figured okay I'll change my major to something else to stand out and have a better chance at getting accepted into med school, I ended up choosing communications, and ironically I fell in love with the major.

           But don't get me wrong I was still determined to follow through with the plan, my goal was to go to med school, until about half way through the second semester of sophomore year. That's when I realized that going to my chem lecture and math class, made me plain upset, I wasn't interested and it just felt forced, it was a class I had to get through just to get into med school and that's not what I wanted, I wanted to feel the same passion I felt about my comm class in all of my classes, to not just go cause I had to but because I wanted to. So then I thought what else makes me happy? And I remembered taking a couple of law classes in previous semesters to fill my gen-ed requirements and I knew pre-law was where I needed to head.

          However, I've gotta admit I'm one of the lucky ones because I knew what made me happy and how I could take that passion and turn it into a successful career, but not everyone is that lucky. See I think the issue is that college is set for the worst time, most college students are 18 just starting their lives, finally get a dose of what freedom and being independent means....and that's the time where they're supposed to make the decision as to what they are going to be doing for the rest of their lives..? Do ya see the problem..? Like how can society expect students coming out of high school to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives by their sophomore year? Because if they take any longer they won't be able to graduate with their friends on time? IT'S JUST WRONG!

            For me college is a time to find yourself, and to really try to figure out what type of person you want to become. For that reason I envy people who can afford to defer college for a year to travel the world, or get some real world experience because I didn't have that luxury as most students don't but if you stop and think about it if all of us had that opportunity I think it would make heading to college and knowing what we wanna do FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES a lot easier than graduating high school going right to college and randomly choosing a career path just so that we can graduate college on time.

               So you might be thinking oh this is just one girl's opinion, and technically you're right because I'm the only one writing this and didn't go around asking other college students but from all of my friends who are in college I see repeating patterns amongst us. 99.9% of my friends who graduated high school at the same time as I did, and picked a major, by their sophomore year had changed their major at least once and the only couple that didn't are just now considering changing their major to something else. And why is that? Because college confuses the shit out of you! You start taking classes for gen-eds and hey maybe you find it so interesting you take more classes on it and bam now you wanna change your major! Or you love the major you're in but you know that you cannot doing anything with that degree so you need to pick something that's going to pay the bills and loans that you owe for being in college in the first place! So as if the stress of picking a major that you'll get a bachelors degree in isn't hard enough, there's also that fact that hey you will need to remember to choose a major that can provide a decent living, cause if not you'll be one of those people who has a degree in one thing but got a job in something completely different...like wha?! What was the point of having gone to college then?!

                    With that being said that's why I feel like college shouldn't come right after high school, there should be a gap, a time where high school students can get to know themselves and start to try and piece together how they want their lives to go. So okay, I admit that even with a little time, some people still may not know what they wanna do with their lives but at least this way that extra time gives students' a chance to expose themselves to different areas of work and study, better equipping them to figure out where they want to be headed than having students go into college as "undeclared" which just stresses them out more since half of their friends have chosen majors (which they may hate.) College should be the best years of your life, where you meet people from all over and discover who you are before the real world sinks in, and so it shouldn't seem daunting because you don't know what the heck to do with your life! It should be a time to explore the seemingly endless possibilities, with innumerable opportunities at your disposal, but it shouldn't happen right after high school, there should be a gap, so all students can get the full college experience minus the worries (well worries about anything but finals lol!)