As my 32^nd birthday draws near, I have finally found myself in a position where I am truly ready to go back to school.

I really think that we, as a society, go to college way too early in most cases. I don’t think at 18, we’re really ready for the immense learning that is needed to complete college, nor are we always completely sure of what we really want to do in life.

How many times have you heard about someone finishing school, starting their career and before long are back in school because they’ve discovered they can’t stand what they do? Too many times.

Or you have people like me, who knew what they wanted to be from a young age, and then upon getting to college, realized they had made a bad choice.

Like so many, by middle school I thought I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I even had my dream college picked out. It was all planned out, it was just a matter of waiting and preparing. Before I knew it, there I was, auditioning to be accepted into the music education program at the college of my dreams.

And I was accepted, and it was literally a dream come true. I couldn’t wait to get started with classes and advance in my education. I had spent so many years preparing for this moment. It was then that my dreams slowly became nightmares.

My young mind was being crammed full of knowledge. Some I knew, new things I’d never even heard of and things I still don’t understand today. I ran around a huge campus, trying to make it to all my classes and trying to keep up with everything. At first, it was amazing. I couldn’t wait to go to class each day. But that faded too. Eventually, I realized that my grades were slipping and that I wasn’t enjoying college anymore.

I loved my friends and going out with them, but college itself was slowly killing me.

I realized that all these new aspects of my chosen major made it hard to enjoy it. I had thought it would be glamorous, that my life would be filled with everything I loved doing and studying. But suddenly, there were things that I didn’t really care to learn about, that I had no choice but to study.

Things that bored me, things that were hard for me, things I didn’t comprehend. And those things, those boring, hard to learn about things made me miserable. I started to hate my classes, and couldn’t wait for the end of the day to go out partying because that was fun.

Let’s face it -- 18 years old is too young to make decisions about the rest of our lives. Just a year prior, we still have a curfew, and we aren’t adults. And the year before that, we’re able to get a driver’s license.

Suddenly at 18, we’re adults, and it’s time to go off to school and make up our minds how we’re spending the rest of our lives even though we literally just became adults. Talk about pressure. I really think we need a few years to experience being an adult, get a taste of life outside of school, and maybe try out a few jobs before we really commit to one thing.

I started off wanting to be a music teacher, and immediately started college for it. I decided two years in that it wasn’t what I wanted to do and I dropped out of college, after considering a few other majors, but deciding against them too.

Then I tried going to school to be a cosmetologist. Again, another thing I found fun, but not sure I could really commit to forever. I nixed that idea too and then just went and worked for various different jobs.

I considered going back to beauty school, I considered going to school for education and I realized that I just wasn’t ready for a decision. Finally, a month ago it dawned on me. I wanted to be a pastry chef. Baking has always been a passion of mine, and every aspect of it intrigues me and I can find peace in myself while doing it. It never stresses me out or makes me unhappy, and so I’m going for it.

At the age of almost 32, I’m going for it.

It took me almost 14 years from the time I graduated high school to find myself and figure out what I want to do. Meanwhile, I had two kids, got married and I’ve had a chance to live life.

I figured out who I really am and learned a lot about myself and the world around me. I think back at the prior attempts of going to school and while I don’t regret them, I wish I would’ve thought things through more. I wish I would’ve been able to see into the future and know it would come to this eventually.

I wish I would’ve known that before I settled into a career and school choice that what I really needed was the chance to experience life, and figure myself out more first. But when you are young, and society tells you to run straight to school, it’s what you do.

For some, their plans work out great. For others, they need the time to learn about themselves first.