Advice needed. To stay in school or not to stay in school.

arod18 · #1 04-29-2007, 08:08 PM

Here's a little background information on me that will help in giving advice.

I'm 18 years old and I'll be finishing my first year at college in two weeks. (I turn 19 in June.) The first semester I got caught up in the whole college life experience and my grades suffered. I rebounded this Spring and managed to sustain good grades.

Right now, however, I don't feel as if I should be in school. I don't know if it's my youth speaking but I want to get out under from my parent's supervision and have some responsibility of my own. They haven't made me get a job, for example, as long as I was going to school and staying out of trouble. They take care of everything. I know I don't have to quit school to gain some responsibility but I just feel that I'm young and don't necessarily need to finish school before I turn 21.

So what do I plan on accomplishing IF I take a year off? My main goal is to just have fun and be young, yet take on some responsibility. An older friend of mine is offering me a position at a golf course he runs with good pay. (This would give me an opprotunity to reignite my passion for golf aswell and perhaps get better and play for a junior college/university once I get ready to return. I was a top-rated junior golfer in my high-school days, yet I got burned out after graduation and completely stopped playing competitively.)

I also plan to do some writing. I had a few poems published while in high-school and two papers on environmental ethics while here in college. I'm a Philosophy major, by the way, with a minor in History.

Maybe it's cliche but I don't feel like I know who I am right now. My friends tell me that I'm young and can always come back after a year and still finish before my mid-twenties which sounds very appealing to me.

I haven't completely ruled out the idea of taking a break while still taking 1 or 2 online classes from my university so that I'm not completely quitting school. What do you guys think?

Thanks for your time and advice.

TIEdup14 · #2 04-29-2007, 08:25 PM

stay in school, anyone telling you otherwise is an idiot.

TIEdup14 · #3 04-29-2007, 08:30 PM

Allow me to expand.

Do you really think living at home (I'm assuming this will be the case, because I doubt you will make enough working part time at a golf course to live on your own) will be a time to relax and do nothing???

Here's the reality:

No friends (non college people you meet will be boring, constantly drugged up, and BORING)
No women (errrr good luck meeting anyone, it will not be as easy as college)
Working (sucks obv)
Parents constantly annoyed/disappointed in you (sucks obv)
CONSTANT BOREDOM (even classes at Com. College will be boring wastes of time)

DO NOT QUIT/TAKE A BREAK FROM COLLEGE!!!!!!!!

johnnyrocket · #4 04-29-2007, 09:10 PM

yea stay in school, i thought this would be a thread of u making $150,000+/year in poker and deciding between them, clearly finish, if you dont have a fallback its not worth it to drop out

orange · #5 04-30-2007, 01:31 AM

OP,
I've had similar feelings during the tail end of my soph. year of college. I've talked to a great number of people, many of them older and having graduated college. They all told me to stay in school and NOT take a year off.

They said that once you get out, its hard to start back up again. Wait until your done with school to take a few years off and do what you want. Or the summer. Its what I plan on doing. and try to enjoy college while you can, its not something to take for granted.

catalyst · #6 04-30-2007, 01:35 AM

STAY IN SCHOOL

theflyingcow · #7 04-30-2007, 02:52 AM

I'm not sure how flexible your school is, but it's not uncommon for students here to take a year off for travel, recover from being too burnt out, etc. However, if you're looking to drop out and live on your own for now, it'll be really hard in my opinion to get motivated to go back to school / restart the whole admissions process again, etc. So my advice would be to stay in school for now and maybe look to apply for some grants to do some traveling over the summer / search for some internships that really interest you. College is supposed to be fun. Enjoy it while you can. I wish I made more of my first two years =\.

Misfire · #8 05-01-2007, 02:09 AM

Hmmmm, where on earth could an 18 year old go to have fun being young, take on some responsibility, do some writing, and work on figuring out who they are?

Edge34 · #9 05-01-2007, 03:27 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Hmmmm, where on earth could an 18 year old go to have fun being young, take on some responsibility, do some writing, and work on figuring out who they are?

[/ QUOTE ]

If a place like that were ever invented, I'd probably bail on this whole "college" thing and go there..........

arod18 · #10 05-01-2007, 10:46 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Hmmmm, where on earth could an 18 year old go to have fun being young, take on some responsibility, do some writing, and work on figuring out who they are?

[/ QUOTE ]

Mexico??