Growing up, I would always have conversations with my grandpa about how "the military is good for you and they pay for your school," so I decided I would grow up and go into the Air Force. My grandpa was a veteran and always wanted to see me succeed since he knew I wanted to go to school.

He told me that I could go and enlist, and then after a few years, they would pay for my college. I kept telling myself that even though I didn't want to go to the military, they would pay for my school, and that was that. I just didn't want the years of college debt to rack up and never be able to live with it.

As I entered into high school, I would go to the booths that military recruiters would set up during our lunch shifts and browse at the options, but none of it was appealing. The more I looked into it, the more I hated that this is what I had to do.

My sophomore year of high school, they had us start looking into where we would want to go to college at or if we wanted to join the military. I didn't want to upset my grandpa because he was a mentor to me, but my heart kept pushing for college.

So without telling my grandpa that I wasn't going to the military, I began looking at schools that seemed like a good fit for me. However, after meeting with some representatives that came to my high school I knew that college was the path I was going to choose for me.

It was really hard having to tell my grandpa that I wouldn't be living his dream of me enlisting and then attending school, and I had to come to the realization that I was going to have a lot of student debt.

My grandpa had passed away my junior year, and so I contemplated not going to college and to honor him in the way of going to the air force, but I knew that he would be satisfied and happy with whatever choice I made.

I officially was accepted to Lindenwood University towards the end of my senior year of high school, and it has been the best decision that I have made. It's not the Air Force, but I know that my grandpa is still proud of my work here, even if that means student debt.