Hitting Pause on College

I will cut right to the chase.  It is totally okay to take a break from college! Whether you just want to decompress from everything that unfolded globally in Spring 2020 or are self-aware that another semester of online learning is not a good fit for you.  Regardless of your reasoning, you have every right to take a break.  College will be there when you are ready to return.

Any college or university reading this now would not be thrilled with my encouragement for students to take a break.  Realistically, they are a business.  They operate on the tuition dollars of their students.  If a student does not return, they are not paying tuition.  With a drop in student enrollment and retention, there is a possibility for these higher education businesses to struggle.  And unless they have a multi-billion endowment, chances are they might really struggle come Fall.  They might be sweating their future, but that does not mean that any student must.

Virtual learning is not for everyone.  In fact, it is a real challenge for a lot of people.  When you signed up for the collegiate experience, taking your college classes online while sitting at the desk in your childhood bedroom may not be how folks envisioned college.  It is an adjustment for everyone, including professors.  The mindset is that at some point in the future, we will all go back to being on-campus and college will feel like college again.  But until we know when that can happen, which if anything tells you definitively when they are lying, this is how college may be for the foreseeable future.

You can just choose to not register for fall semester classes.  You can potentially consider studying abroad if you were not already.  Or what about exploring opportunities like a Gap Year Program or wilderness therapy?  The possibilities for what to do lieu of a semester off from college can be endless.  In fact, if you are not feeling overwhelmed by the number of amazing choices you may want to open your eyes a little more.  If you are still not seeing it, it might be worth hiring someone to help you learn about these alternatives. 

Again, this is just you hitting pause on your college experience.  It is okay to hit pause, if you don’t completely pause your life for the next semester months.  If you are not going to college, at least have something else going for you.  The opportunities are endless!

For questions or comments contact Joanna.