Post-High School Options Offer Kids Opportunity to Grow Up

As high school students careening headlong into adulthood, most of us thought of our post-high school options in three basic categories: college, military, or work force. Likewise, most of us perceived the "normal" path in life to be that of our parents, since they were by far the most influential example provided to us.

Throughout my adult life I have listened to myriad opinions from friends, family members, and business associates about what the "right" thing for high school graduates to do as they venture out into the world, diploma in hand, to assume their rightful place in the real world of adulthood. I suppose it is difficult for any of us to shake the perception so deeply engrained in our psyches during our formative years and consider other points-of-view.

For those raised in homes where one or both parents are college graduates, of course it is automatically assumed that their progeny will follow in their footsteps and make their way into institutions of higher learning after high school. Others enlist in a branch of the armed forces to earn money through GI Bill programs with intent to enter a college, trade school, or university upon their honorable discharge. Others still opt to enter the work force immediately upon graduation, either joining a family business or farm or finding employment in a local factory or small business.

As the son of a father who held an associate's degree and a mother with a certificate from a business trade school, I made above average grades in high school and I never really considered that I wouldn't go to college. I grew up in a town of about 10,000 people in a rural area where most working folks were farmers, factory workers, and other blue-collar types. It was a great place to be from but didn't hold much hope of advancing beyond lower-middle class lifestyles for my generation. This type of environment was kind of an enigma, I realized years after I left to attend school and settle in another state 800 miles away from home. My friends and I never really felt any limits with regard to our hopes for the future. I suppose that's the way with most teenagers.