My Decision and Why

For those of y'all who don't already know, I have decided to not attend college, at least for the time being. This wasn't a decision that was unexpected or without thought, but something I've contemplated for the past year or so. College is a great way to learn and to grow as a person, not to mention all the different people you meet along the way. It obviously wasn't these reasons that pushed me towards my decision, it was some others.

Reason one was security. It seems that some peoples soul reason for attending was my soul reason for not. I don't like the idea of having a degree to fall back on, or money for that matter. As the author Scott Peck puts it, " The only real security in life lies in relishing life's insecurities." My preference is to focus on the "Now" in life, in simply just being. I don't want to know what my future holds. Not that going to college would necessarily guarantee me anything, after all, who knows where the future will lead.  It seems that where I end up and what I do will always be changing. The more faith I put into myself, the less faith I put into life.  Life is filled with instances of serendipity and fortune that there is no way of predicting, I'm going to move out of the way and let it takes it's course.

We can learn the same idea or concept in often more ways than one. Whether it be research, reading, surveying, or simply doing, all are ways to educate our selfs. I want to learn by doing, by being thrown in the midst of life and seeing what it has to teach me. When discussing the decision to not attend college with my peers, I was frequently criticized and told of the importance of education. This confused me. By not attending college, yes, I am passing up an opportunity, but only to pick up another one. I don't want to learn in the classroom, I want to learn from experience.

My last reason is something internal. It's my motives. I've jumped back and forth many times...countless times on this decision. After much introspection I now see the reason for my indecisiveness. If I were to attend college in my current state of mind, my motives would be security, money, the need to fit in, and lastly, the simple fact that it would be easy. To me these motives aren't just enough to over rule what I actually want to do. What do I actually want to do? I'm not sure, but I suppose I should begin with what I don't want, which for me happens to be to attend college. I'm comfortable with this decision, I'm happy. What more could I want?

By no means will this route be easy. It will be challenging and will force me to be creative in how I go about living.  I'm sure there will be times when I have no idea where to step next. This excites me, and to life I say, "bring it on."