Not knowing is more than ok
By Lucy Wing, Content Editor
It’s a little ironic that I feel pressured to get this opinion on the pressure done. I knew I wanted to write an opinion this issue, something a little more honest. I volunteered the idea to write an opinion on answering questions about your future with “I don’t know,” because I was in the midst of making a decision on where I was going to spend the next few years of my life. The pressure to go to college is bigger than ever with social media, high tuition prices, and a generation of college graduates who paid for their education telling us that we can do the same. Of course, all experiences are unique and not every student experiences the same thing, but there is a collective pressure on this generation as a whole to get a higher education so we can fix the world older generations have left for us.
College is the natural next step for most of us. We don’t know what we want in life, so continuing school is the safest thing to do to keep “climbing towards success.” It’s the only thing you can do if your definition of success aligns with society as a whole, and for many of us, our parents’ definition of success as well. College is something that I’ve always seen myself doing, something my family has always seen me doing, but there was a time when I was seriously considering not going to school at all, just so all the pressures I felt would stop and I could truly live and do what I want, which is to travel. I see the success others have taking a gap year and not going to college at all, would I be able to do the same?
Your life is really what you make of it, and college is no different. There’s no way to know that your decision is the right one; there never is. You just have to trust that at this moment in time, your choice is right and it’s up to you to make the most of every moment.
But it’s ok if you don’t know too. The future isn’t clear for anyone, even if it feels like it is for everyone. The more you can be excited for yourself, and recognize that your path is yours, the better off you’ll be. And maybe while it feels like you’re compromising in one area, it allows another part of your life room to grow. Your life is yours to live, so don’t worry about comparing it to others’, or your parents’, or your parents’ idea of what your life should be.
Decisions, as definitive as they feel in the moment, are often more flexible than they seem. It’s easy to get caught up in the weight of everything, but it’s important to trust that whatever decision you make is the right one, and if it’s not, there are other paths still open for you to take.