Modern society has built up higher education to where it seems like it is the only option to succeed in life. I am a college undergraduate English major, and the number of jobs I can get without a Master’s Degree are limited. Many of my professors assume I am continuing my education while I have no plans to do such a thing. Why does it seem like such a hard concept to grasp that someone might not want to continue with school?

Now my “problem” is little compared to those who find themselves not wanting to go to college at all. The common misconception is that those who do not go to college are somehow not as smart or at least at a major disadvantage. I am here to tell you that they are not either of those things. College is not for everyone, and it should not be mandatory to succeed in life. People are different; no two people are the same, and people’s journeys to success are going to be different.

Those who decide to skip college and get a jumpstart in the workforce are usually dedicated, hard workers.

Skipping college is not a cop-out. It is not easy. No path in life is easy. These people start with small jobs and then work their way up. They learn through hands-on experience rather through a classroom lecture and theory. I would even argue that these people have a slight advantage over us college-goers because they do not have to worry about the increasing debt that college students tend to rack up.

Our society has come to believe it is impossible to succeed in the workplace without some kind of degree or two. That is not right. There are plenty of very successful and influential people who do not (or did not) have a college degree. One such man was Steve Jobs, who built one of the world's largest companies, Apple. While he did briefly attend college, he dropped out before finishing his degree. He managed to make a massive difference in today's society and became a very successful man. He once stated in regards to success, "Be early. Stay late. Make the extra phone call. Send the extra email. Do the extra research. Help a customer unload or unpack a shipment."

Success is about hard work and dedication, and there is more than one way to reach that goal.

For some, success can be found through getting a college degree (or more than one), and for others, it might be found by working their way from the ground up with experience instead of a degree. Neither way is inherently more right than the other. Each person should be able to choose how they reach their success without the societal pressure, and like with Martin Luther King Jr., it all starts with a dream.