Do Something by Kalista

Do Something by Kalista - April 2020 Scholarship Essay

All throughout our educational life we are taught to prepare for the hardest social and intellectual battle of our lives; college. We are told that you have to go to college and if you don’t you will not amount to anything in life, but not everyone wants to go to college. In this essay, I will tell you why I am a firm believer of not necessarily going to college, but simply doing something. Not everyone is suited for college, and not every profession requires it. Many people overlook the idea of trade vocational schooling despite it being a cheaper and oftentimes better education. There are also many professions that do not require any schooling. Many students struggle enough with the 13 years of required school despite adding 4-6 more years on top of it. So why make it a priority? Instead of teaching America’s youth to rush into college right after high school even if you don’t know what you want to do, cause you’ll figure it out, encourage students to simply do something. Go to college, trade school, work, take a gap year and travel while you’re young; do what makes you happy. Not everyone knows exactly what they want to do with their entire life at 17or 18. We are telling the youth of today that in a very short part of their life they had better know what they want to do for a minimum of 50 years. We discourage today’s youth from taking a gap year because it makes them seem irresponsible and frivolous but isn’t it better for kids to take a year or even six months when they are 18 to discover themselves and find out who they are and where their heart is than to have a mid-life crisis at 55? Isn’t it better to encourage kids to take time to discover themselves while they are young and be different rather than conforming to society doing the same things as everyone else? We tell children from the time they are born that everyone is special and unique, and if we do that why do we encourage them all to have the same future path even if it’s not right for everyone. I don’t think college is bad; I think it’s very good, for people who want it. Some of the most successful people in the world never went to college, and we don’t condemn them for it, so why do we condemn our youth for not going?