Taking time off from school

As the school year draws to a close, the majority of the ECU student body is caught up in the excitement of the future. Whether you're a senior looking past graduation and what your career will be or a sophomore who's now successfully halfway through college, there's a lot going on and a lot of future planning.

There's a small portion of people I know, however, who are finishing up this year and planning to take a "year off" from school. I'm not talking about taking a year to study abroad or do volunteer work, I mean the quit-school-and-work type of taking a year off. I have just one word for everyone who is planning to do this for the 2008-09 school year: DON'T.

I know what it's like to be in a rough spot financially with school and having to work multiple jobs, just to make ends meet on a tightly budgeted college kid's life. I know that it may seem like a good idea to take that time off, save some money up and return to school "when the time's right." I know because I did it myself after my freshman year.

In the summer of 2005, I quit school, started working as an IT specialist for $10 an hour, and thought I had it made. I was saving $200 a week, had plenty of money for spending on myself and kept on saying, "Yeah, I'll register again next semester. This way I won't have to work when I return to school." I kept postponing applying so often that it got to the point where I believed that you really didn't need a degree to make it in the world, despite what everyone said. I decided I'd stick to my career and work my way up through hard work instead of having a degree.

Well, my boss had other plans. You know how they always tell you that a degree is the most important thing you can have in a job hunt nowadays? Well, it's also the most important thing you can have to keep a job, too. North Carolina isn't a right-to-work state, so your employer can fire you at a moment's notice without any reason or repercussions. When my employer found someone who had the same level of skills as I did, but with a degree, he let me go.

Luckily, he fired me four weeks before the deadline for me to register for fall semester. I came back to ECU crestfallen. I had to use most of the money I saved up just to pay for rent, utilities and my groceries, so my plan of saving up so I wouldn't have to work while at school completely fell through. I was also much older than all my peers and a little bit bitter over my past situation, so it made it difficult for me to re-adapt to college life.

Thanks to working my butt off, taking 21-credit-hour semesters and signing up for summer classes, I'm back on schedule for graduating next spring. I also learned how to balance jobs, low interest school loans and scholarships, so the temptation of taking time off to work won't be so enticing this time.

My situation may not seem that dire, and you might be wondering why I'm warning people to stay in school and not let the fear of money pull you out. I know there are probably plenty of people reading this who either know someone who took time off or took time off themselves from school. Well, guys and girls who came back to school, we're pretty much in the minority. Of the 20 people I knew of who took time off from school to work after their freshman year, I'm the only one who returned. Everyone else either got so caught up in work, paying off their student loans for a degree they'll never get or various other distractions, that they're now to the point where they feel it'd be completely useless to return to school, despite how much their parents push them to return.

So kids, please hear me out. If you're having trouble paying for school or just feel downtrodden by the process, go to college part time and work full time, or try to take classes at a community college after work. Please just don't completely drop out of school. It's a decision I've regretted, and I know you will too.

This writer can be reached at opinion@theeastcarolinian.com