This is my last year of college...assuming I don't flunk any courses and the registrar says I actually get a diploma. Maybe it's better to say, this is supposed to be my last year of college. Let me tell you, that is terrifying. I have been a student since I was four years old sitting in preschool. I'll be 22 when I graduate. That's eighteen years of having "student" be one of my main identifiers. My school career is a legal adult and can vote! And now I'm sitting here, about to start my final year of schooling and I'm absolutely terrified.

Maybe it's because none of my schooling actually prepared me.

Sure, I've got one more year for the educational system to pull through for me, but I have high doubts. Yes, I will be learning how to write proposals, design websites, and fine-tune my portfolio, but what does that prepare me for? A job I don't even know I'll have? Because getting this magical diploma that says I graduated doesn't guarantee me a job. It doesn't even guarantee an interview. It does guarantee massive amounts of debt that no one has really taken the time to explain how I'm supposed to pay off.

I'll give a pass to my college educators. They've done the best they can to educate me and honestly I feel like learning coding, journalism, and creative writing will help me in the future (at least the future I've chosen). College has tried to prepare me for a specific job type. College required an internship (which I highly recommend you do if it's required or not). College has actual useful resources outside of the classroom; like career counseling.

Really, it's high school that failed me. I believe high school should be used to give us a base education so that when we go on to college we can then specialize in what we love. I also think high school should teach us how to be functioning members of society because at the end of those four years, you're released into the wild. You're a legal adult who can vote and smoke and go to war and you might not understand what any of that really means. Why was it important for me to spend so much time learning about Virginia's part in the civil war for the eighth year in a row when I could've been taught how to navigate the media to decide which political candidate I agreed with most. Why was it more important that I know that Pythagorean theorem over how to balance a checkbook or pay taxes. Why did no one think that maybe in health class we should touch on mental health and how to cook healthy meals and how to care for another person.

I get it. Math and History and English and Science are all really important. I understand why I needed to learn them. Heck, I enjoyed learning them because I'm a massive nerd. But none of that does any good if I walk across the stage, shake the president of my college's hand, and leave still not being prepared to live. That to me is a waste of eighteen years.