So about 2 years ago, I made a video about Why I’m Not Going To College. You can watch that if you want the full story but in short, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life at the time so it made no sense to waste a ton of time and money at college to figure that out when I could always go later if I did discover I wanted a career that would require a college degree. A lot of people resonated with that at the time but surprisingly, going through the recent comments, a lot of people are not happy that I was promoting not going to college because I didn’t know what my interests were- which I think is beyond ridiculous.
College in the US is expensive. Going there and just hoping you’ll figure out what you want to do will either lead to dropping out, picking something you aren’t really passionate about but you feel pressured into making a decision, or if you’re lucky- you will find something you really like. Not going allows you to live life away from schools for a while, work + save up money (which will make life so much easier if you do decide to go eventually), and in my opinion you’re far more likely to discover your passions and interests if you haven’t already by the end of high school. From around age 5, you’ve spent a large amount of time in school, so to take a step away from that for a year or more, get a job, maybe move out of your parents home if possible, become more independent, etc, it’s easier to figure things out that way, and you don’t have the possibility of wasting tens of thousands of dollars if you decide you want to go a different route- because college is always going to be there if you wanna go in the future.
Over the past 1.5 years that I’ve been out of high school (+ the 2 years before thst when I did online school and had way more time) I’ve been able to discover my interests so much to the point that I feel like I could go to school for many different things and be really interested to learn about them.
For me, the things that matter are:
Am I interested in learning about the subject and can I see myself pursuing a career in the field?
Do I feel it is beneficial to society and will help people?
Do I think I have the skills needed to do well in the field?
Are there jobs in the field and will the amount of jobs likely continue to grow, making it easier for me to get a job once I’m out of school?
Luckily, when I decided I wanted to go to school, I knew I wanted to do environmental science (ES) which I think fits all of those points. It’s something I’m really passionate about and would love to be able to have a career that is focused on making the world more sustainable. Science was actually the subject I’ve always been worst at so #3’s the only one I’m slightly concerned with but the lowest grade I ever got in a science class was B+ so that’s not bad at all. I always felt like I was the best at science and the worst at language arts but my grades showed the exact opposite so I’m gonna conclude that I’m a bad judge of my abilities lol. And based on what I've read, jobs related to the environment and sustainability are increasing pretty rapidly so I’m hoping it won’t be as hard to get a job in that field compared to some others.
So, to answer the title of this post, basically what made me decide to go to college is….
idk- I just decided to one day.
I have a bit of a long story that I’ll try to shorten because it might seem irrelevant- but summer 2019 I had come across this news article of 4 people I went to school with who had made it Nationals for a National History Day project, 2 of whom were in my grade, 1 who I was close friends with in elementary school and the other who was the smartest kid in the grade, and in the article it said he had actually won the entire thing in his category (theres different categories for different project types like video, paper, etc) and I just felt so happy for them, I cried a little hahah, and it made me think about how much I missed learning. I had actually never been one to dislike school so I kind of missed some aspects of it. I decided to sign up to take online courses at a college and was gonna take 1 over the winter just to learn something (I never actually did take a class just because it would’ve made applying for the college I’m now going to more difficult).
So by October I had already kind of had college in my mind, and I was looking for a part time job because, if you don’t know, YouTube is my job but I wanted a way to be able to get out of my apartment and meet people since I had moved to San Antonio from Wisconsin in May. Since I techncially didn’t need a job because I made enough from YouTube, I felt like I could be picky so I wasn’t gonna settle for some job that didn’t interest me. I sent my resume to a few and did get accepted for this tutoring position but they had a lot of tutors apparently and said they’d contact me if they needed me but never have. I also went in for 2 interviews for a position as a hotel spa concierge which sounded really fun because it was a lot of cleaning and organizing which I like doing but they must not have liked my second interview because I never heard from them again.
So then I was frustrated because none of the jobs interested me (I looked through hundreds online)… so I decided I’d just go to college. Definitely not the best way to make a big desicion and might seem odd after all I’ve said but I don’t want youtube to be my career for my entire life and don’t even know if it’s possible for it to be my career, and the idea of going to college really excited me for the first time since middle school. And I knew as soon as the thought popped into my head that I’d love to do something in the ES field because I’m an analytical type person. I like working with numbers and have always liked science and math and I think improving the state of the environment is one of the most important things at this time. I took at ES class and an Earth Science class in online school and really enjoyed them both so I’m hoping I also enjoy learning about them in college.
I’m completely aware that I might change my mind with what I want to do and might waste money and time that way or I may even drop out, those are definitely possibilites and I have no resistance to them if I ever end up feeling like one of them is my best option. But I’m hoping that the science in it will balance nicely with the creativity in making videos so while I’m in school and once I’m out, I’ll enjoy the polarity between the two. I think it will feel fulfilling to have a job that feeds my analytical side and can be relied on as a stable income while also being able to express my thoughts and other interests creatively on YouTube and not have to be concerned about making money from it.
So in Fall 2020 I’ll be attending the University of Texas at San Antonio (I didn’t want to move because I like San Antonio, it’s cheap, and I won’t have to pay out of state tuition) and its not like some amazing college so I’m hoping that means it’ll be easier than some of the “better” ones. I’m really excited to learn and meet new people (hard to do that when you work from home and are shy) and just see where it takes me!
Im wondering where the journey has taken you so far ?.