Valeria Escobar Staff Writer
College is one of the most frustrating topics to think and talk about, at least for me. Most of the time I try to ignore this topic completely. “I’ll think about it when the time comes” I always tell myself. But every day that passes, that time when I actually have to start thinking about is getting closer, and I have even more options to consider.
In middle school I thought I had a pretty concrete college plan for the future. Even though in middle school I didn’t know what I wanted to study in the future, I had an idea of where I would like to study. The “where” part now became one of the most difficult aspects to keep in mind– and for me, that’s a much bigger question than just whether I want to stay in Philadelphia.
The majority of my family lives in Colombia, so for the longest time I thought I would just go to college there, so I could maintain a close relationship with my family. This seemed like a simple option, and basically the only option I had in mind, but now the “college talk” has been happening a lot more frequently, more options come up.
Even though I still like the idea of studying in Colombia, now I understand the difficulties of living there, such as the political problems happening right now, the economic struggles I would most likely go through, and the quality of education there is not as good as in other places.
My parents play a huge role in where I finally end up in college, so their approval is necessary for me. Currently, they are leaning towards me studying abroad in Germany, since it’s mostly free and the quality of education is also really good. Even though this seems like the best option for them, this is the option that scares me the most. College in Germany would be the opposite of what I had originally planned. It would be extremely far from my family, I also have to think about learning the language, and that I would basically have to reset my whole life there because I don’t know anybody, or their culture.
Obviously another option for me would be to stay in the U.S. and go to college here, but unlike my other options, this would be the most expensive, If I wanted to go to a good college.
The college I go to will ultimately depend on what I want to pursue in life, but since I have no idea what that is, geography and money are the biggest factors influencing my decision.
Hopefully inspiration or my passion will strike between now and senior year, which will make choosing a college, and where exactly that college is gonna be in, a little less complicated.
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