How college will effect my life

I am excited about the opportunity to go to college and follow a course of study which really interests me. They say accounting is the language of business. I have always been interested in business and as I learn more about accounting, I can’t wait to get started. But when I think about how college will affect my life, I think about independence and the choices I will have to make. The legal drinking age is 21 but I know a lot of college students will drink a few beers or even quite a few beers. Meeting someone and staying overnight at someone else’s place or my own all of a sudden is a choice I need to make. I will be in classes about 15 hours a week and how I use all the other hours of the week is up to me. Heck, even those 15 hours is optional, no parents will be notified if I decide to sleep in. Going to college means real independence where all decisions from what time to get out of bed in the morning to what I choose to drink at night around my new friends, and the consequences as a result of those decisions, will be 100% on me.

As a little girl, I always wanted to be a waitress. But as my dad would say, “If you want to be a waitress, you first have to go to college, and after college if you still want to be a waitress, go for it.” Going to college will give me the knowledge I need to determine what I am going to do the rest of my life. While technology and the world at large is changing rapidly, college will give me the skills to think clearly about problems, communicate logically with peers, and resolve issues for the benefit of all. These basic life skills will equip me for whatever I choose to do in this ever changing environment. While I don’t know exactly how college will affect my life, I do know that what I will be at age 22 will be very different from what I am at age 18.