Hi Amanda,

You are not alone in this. The path isn’t clear cut for everyone, and making decisions like this can be very difficult. Personally, I went to university for a year after graduating from high school and then dropped out the following year because of reasons you mentioned (money and indecisiveness). I thought I had one burning passion and now my interests seem to be stemming into many fields of academia, making it hard for me to choose.

Education is starting to become unappealing to many people these days as tuition prices rise. But there are some of my suggestions:
1) You could try taking open studies or general studies, experimenting with classes in different areas to see which ones you like more or less.
2) You could just attend school part time, taking maybe 2-3 classes and that will allow you enough time to work part-time, helping you reduce the financial demands. This way, if you don’t like all or some of the courses, you won’t feel too regretful because you didn’t take a full course load.
3) What are the specific fields you are interested in? Before committing yourself to a post-secondary institution and deciding you don’t like your program, get hold of some informative books/textbooks about those things you are most interested in and study them to see if this is truly something you would enjoy learning in a formal environment.
4) If you do decide to commit to studying something you love and you find yourself in a lot of debt, you can always take a semester or a year off during your studies to work again.
5) Remember, college/university is not for everyone. This doesn’t mean that you still can’t become an educated person. There are many other resources you can use to learn, i.e. books, online videos, etc.
6) If you decide not to go to college/university in the near future, maybe you could look into other jobs that you would like to do that require minimal training/certification. Perhaps something in the job field will come your way.

The most difficult thing is this- you really DON’T know if a decision will make you happy or not. But sometimes we just have to leap, try something, and if it doesn’t turn out, then you can always change your mind. Remember, school will always be available to you, and so will jobs. So don’t put too much stress on yourself by worrying.

Good luck with everything!

Hey Amanda- I just loved reading this from you “Right now i love life, and am thankful for everything i have even though i do not have all the expensive toys , or brand named clothing etc. I am just a simple young lady who is interested in what is going on with the world , wanting to change the problems we face in today’s society from politics, culture and religion.” It made me smile to see a young person with such a perspective.

Only you know what is the right path for you. But I can offer this. I went back to school at the age of 26 and eventually continued on to achieve my doctorate. It cost a LOT of money. Much of this I had to borrow. My degree is one that offers me opportunities to make money and I was able to pay my loans in short order. I’ve also seen a lot of people spend a lot on education and have no opportunities to make the necessary money to justify it. It’s great if you are independently wealthy, but not very practical.

So I would consider the options that study may afford you and base your decision on this.

Peace 🙂