Deciding on a college and major is something a lot of students struggle with. For me, I’ve learned that what I want with my life is something that changes a lot and deciding is definitely not something I want to do. I decided to take a gap year for a lot of reasons, and no, I’m not scared of a gap year turning into a gap life. I have ambitions and goals to achieve, but I’m not quite ready to get started on my life.

     College is very expensive, and my brother told me when he started college that he didn’t know what he wanted to do. After two years of flipping majors, he ultimately decided to drop out and pursue cooking. He said “don’t go to college unless you know what you want to do.” It’s a waste of money and time in my opinion, and I know now that college isn’t a top priority to me. 

     I have never been very keen on college, it’s always seemed like something your parents and teachers force onto you. Well now, I’m old enough and responsible enough to decide on a plan. I have everything planned out: I will take a gap year and work instead, maybe complete some classes through Front Range, then after a year go to CMC Steamboat and study environmental science. Now, this begs the question, why don’t I just go through with the environmental science  major immediately? It’s mostly because that is more of a back-up major than something I would actually like to pursue. 

     Another reason for my gap year is honestly that I’m lazy. I want a year where I don’t have to worry about turning something in or studying for a test. After getting out of the stress jungle that is high school, I want to just chill out. It’s not a year for me to just be a bum, it’s a year for me to destress and work up some money to prevent more stress in the future. I’m going to live in Steamboat and hopefully take some trips and just live my life before working for the rest of my life. 

     I’m not ready for college, but I am ready to provide for myself and live for more than just college. I don’t want a conventional life, which means I can’t let education define me. We are so much more than the diplomas and degrees we earn, I hope to figure out who I am before I let a school do it for me. I want to find what really interests me before signing my life and wallet away.