College Alternatives Should Be Given the Spotlight

During the second semester of my freshman year of college, I seriously considered dropping out. I even applied for an alternative career-building apprenticeship program called Praxis. I had nearly a 4.0, but the classes I earned the grades in just felt so impractical. I wanted to feel like I was actually doing something, creating things and laying down a foundation for a career. Instead, I felt entirely lost. I didn’t see the benefit of specializing in an area of study when none of my various interests fit into the neat little box that majors confine students to.

The real adults (as in people with full-time jobs) in my life kept telling me, “Just get it done, just get a degree in something, anything, and once you get out, do whatever you want. Companies won’t care what you studied. They just want to know you have a degree.” That sentiment was repeated to me so much I started to wonder, “Why bother if no one cares what I studied?” I wanted to learn concrete, valuable skills that would enable me to do the things I dreamed of. You don’t get anywhere by theorizing about doing something, you just go out and do it.

Even after I was accepted into the Praxis apprenticeship program, I couldn’t go through with it. I was terrified of having to move again after already moving across the country away from everyone I knew, and I was terrified of…