March 19, 2024

What's Next For Me

Feb. 1, 2015

by John Minster, Traverse City Central High School

"Next." Such a broad word. There are tons of things that could be next. I’ve learned while growing up, that often times, the things that are next for me or things I’m looking forward to are very different from other kids my age. With that in mind, I want to talk about something I think every kid eventually considers: deciding whether to go to college. For me? I’m going.

Thankfully, I have a few good options for post secondary education. I’ve been offered some scholarship money and I’m lucky enough to have a family that will help me financially. But that’s the crux of college for just about everyone. Some are lucky enough to be so excellent they don’t have to worry about it or have a family that can cover the costs. But for the rest of us, college costs hanging over our heads for the rest of our lives is a very real worry.

I spoke with an older (to me at least) woman in her 30s the other day. Our conversation eventually worked its way around to college. She said something that struck me: college is a good option for those who absolutely know what they want to do and have the means to make it happen.

But you have to have both. She talked about someone she knew who went to college for four years but one semester from graduation, realized he didn’t want to do what he’d been there for. That said, he finished his degree and went onto other things. While certainly it’s helpful to have a degree in something, I can’t help but wonder if he could have spent that time doing something more productive that lent itself more to his future.

Then she talked about herself. She was still working on paying off her own college loans. She seemed to have everything in hand the way she talked about it and how it wasn’t a big deal, but this is a person who has started a family, and instead of worrying about saving money for her child still has to worry about paying off her own college loans. That’s a problem, whether it was to her or not. It’s a problem for everyone.

Another man I’ve known for a while asked me a few days ago what I was going to school for. I told him I was planning on getting a degree in journalism, and hoped to get a double major in business as well. He sort of made a funny face at me after I told him. We were both kinda preoccupied, so we just went about what we were doing, but I know exactly what he was thinking. "˜Why would you want to do that? Leave home, a place you’ve lived your whole life, to go pursue a career in a seemingly dying industry, where the pay is often poor, the work difficult, and potentially waste thousands of dollars in the process?’

It’s a valid question. Why would I? For one, it’s not a dying industry, though an extremely competitive one, but it gives me universally applicable skills, it lends well to my passions, and because I’m good at it. I learned from a great man, you never want to do something you don’t love. To go to the same place every day and slave away at work you hate, in a place you hate, with people you, well, hate, is mental suicide. I can’t go down that road, and it pains me for anyone who does.

It’s just that, I’m not going to school to be a doctor or a lawyer or a statistician, I’m going to be a journalist. I sit around and I listen to what other people around me are doing. One kid wants to be a chemical engineer and is trying to decide between Princeton or MIT, another is looking at medical school at UM"¦ I’m going to have to work harder, work longer hours, and produce more quality work for significantly less pay than others until I really make it. But that’s just how it has to be, and that’s what I’ll do.

I’m undoubtedly worried about what I have in front of me, but I have confidence things will work out the way I want them to, and if they don’t, I’ll be able to adapt to changing circumstances and make the best of things. Yet my worries are insignificant compared to most kids my age. Many of them don’t know what they want to do, so they’re faced with the prospect of spending because at least it’s some direction. Or, they know exactly what they want to do yet they don’t have the means to do it.

These days the government describes college as a necessity for everyone. I don’t think that’s true, but for some of us it is. I’m not sure what those who can’t or those who don’t know will do, but I do know this: I’m going to have to put up with the system, get some college loans, and work hard in order to do what I want to do. Everyone is going to have their own path, but nearly every successful path has one common theme: hard work. I just hope everyone else my age can tap into that theme in the same way I know I will.

John Minster is a senior at Traverse City Central School and co-editor in chief of Black & Gold newspaper.

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