Advice for a highschool senior
Daniela Vergara
6-25-13

To you the soon to be high school graduate, Congratulations! You are entering a very important transition in your life! In these next few months, you can begin to decide the direction of your life. While there are many paths that can lead to success and happiness, I would personally advise you to consider atteneding college. College offers many benefits, of which formal education is only one. It offers the ability to build social skills, and meet people from varying cultures and backgrounds. It also helps build independence, as most college settings are away from the home where you grew up. Additionally college helps you build connections with those who could be your future employers or partners. Finally, going to college, on average, raises your future salary, helping gaurentee a more secure future for you and your family. Attending College will broaden your persepective on the world and offer new ideas and concepts which may challenge what you have been taught at home. This type of education is essential to personal character and belief development. It allows you to have the ability to truly decide what you believe in and care about. In addition to learning more about your self you will also learn about the career field you choose to go into. This type of intensive learning will be unbelievably beneficial when you join the formal work force later in life, and you will almost deffinitly be able to enter at a higher position than a non college graduate. Going to college will also build your social skills. College is a time where people are truly figuring themselves out, and thus can also build more meaningful and lasting relationships. More over, you will probably meet people from all over the country if not the world. The diversity in life stories and places of origin can lead to a rich and enlightening social expierence, which will benefit you greatly as you navigate America’s ever diversifying culture. Going away to college, forces the attendee to learn to take care of themselves, which is an essential part of growing up. When you go to college, your mother will not be there to wake you up and say, “go to school” or “do your homework!” It is something that you must do yourself. This type of self reliance will do you well when you have deadlines or appointments later in life when you have a post college job. One also learns simple things when away at college, like doing laundry or how to cook simple things, out of necessity. These are important life skills that will be very useful down the line. If you do go to college, be sure to value the