I want to leave high school, I really do. College seems appealing compared to how draining it is to show up every day for seven and a half hours and give 100 percent of my effort completing worksheet after worksheet after worksheet. There are, however, many things that aren’t so appealing about college life.

1. The cost

College is expensive. Even if you choose to go in-state, costs per year average around $10,000 in Texas. For a 4-year degree, thats $40,000 AT LEAST. Everything about this world is expensive, public education should not be.

2. No time to travel

Once you graduate from college (if you do), you are going to need money unless you inherited some large sum of cash from an insanely rich ancestor. This would require you to jump straight from college into the workforce. This doesn’t provide much time for travelling the world and seeing everything you wanted to but couldn’t during your years of public school.

3. Things left behind

There are some days when I wish I was in college to get away from my family and focus on starting a career and adult life. As I write this with my puppy curled up next to me in my warm, comfortable, queen-sized bed, I realize that these are things I will miss terribly.

4. It takes your friends

Last year, I became close with some seniors that will be my friends for the rest of my life. When graduation came around, it hit me that they were all taking off in almost every single direction out of Texas. Tennessee, Idaho, and California are all very distinctly different places and are all very far away from each other, and Lord knows I don’t have the money to pay for one plane ticket, let alone three.

I still fully plan on going to college because I know that despite these disadvantages, college is probably wonderful, I am just not looking forward to dealing with these issues. Ultimately, I hope the good will outweigh the bad.

#GoVols.

(Allison Dillard blackmailed me into including this)