Back in senior year of high school, I had the opportunity to choose which of my top three schools I’d attend for college. After four grueling years that included AP tests, SATs and the untimely death of my beloved youth pastor, I could finally go to a school in one of my dream cities. I could finally live out the full college experience away from the familiarities that the Bay Area offered.

As grateful as I am to the Bay Area for being my childhood home, I was more than ready to leave. Growing up here had its perks (like telling my extended family members in Korea that Apple is quite literally in my backyard), but I was itching to leave. The Bay Area was too familiar and basically boring. There was nothing new to experience since I'd been here for 18 of the 21 years that I've been alive.

I knew that when the time came for me to leave, I'd miss my family. Yet being away from my parents and younger brother seemed like the best way to jump start what would become my introduction to an independent adult life. It was a sacrifice that I was willing to make.

Little did high school me know, none of the college experiences of my dreams would come true.

It's been three or so years since I decided against going to school in New York, Los Angeles or Seattle. It's been three years since I decided to stay in the Bay Area. It's been three years since I decided to commit to San Jose State University (SJSU). It's been three years since people gave me looks of pity whenever I told them where I decided to go for school.

They thought that I was somehow "too good" for the school, that I "deserved" to go to a "better" school. I remember having to justify my decision to each and every naysayer as if their opinions actually mattered.

It also didn't help that this pity came from the people I knew from within the tight-knit Korean community that I also happen to be a part of as a virtue of my ethnicity.

I really don't like playing into racial stereotypes, but it's honestly somewhat (if not completely) true that Asians (especially those who immigrated here) will judge you often wrongly and unnecessarily harshly when it comes to things like which college you attended. Especially to Korean people, you have to "look good" on the outside and one of those things that can make you "look good" is the school written on your degree. As much as I hate to say it, this is simply a part of my culture.

It's not just the college that you choose to attend that people use to make quick judgments about you. In high school, at least in my area, people automatically assumed that everyone who went to Gunn High School or The King's Academy were automatically smart and gifted. I'm not going to say that they're not because I'm sure that's true.

But my high school also had its fair share of incredibly gifted and talented people who I know for a fact are doing amazing things with their lives right now. Do a quick browse on LinkedIn and Facebook and you'll find the evidence to prove my claim.

Did the high school that they attended determine how much intelligence, ambition, and talent each student would have? No, of course not. The answer is a resounding no.

Even today, people look at me quizzically when I tell them that I go to SJSU. They ask me what that's like and the way I'm asked this question makes me wonder why SJSU has a not-so-great reputation within different communities.

SJSU is an amazing school and though it has its faults, I would never trade the experiences I've had here because I've come to love this school. I would not trade the impacted classes, the frustratingly huge traffic in and around the parking garages, the occasional homeless individual that wanders onto campus, nothing in my experience at all for a different college experience.

I'm bragging at this point, but I've also been blessed with the opportunity to serve as production editor for the Spartan Daily this semester and the promotion to executive producer in the 2017 fall semester.

Additionally, all of my top three schools were too expensive for me. I'm not afraid to admit that I didn't want to pay off oceans of loans after I graduated, and for what? A bachelor's degree? Today, having a bachelor's degree doesn't even guarantee you a secure job. Maybe the cost will be worth it when I return to the familiar classroom for my master's and doctorate in the future.

Feel free to disagree with me here, but I simply cannot justify wringing out money that I don't have to pay for a degree that honestly doesn't even give me the same career safety that was offered to our grandparents and even parents some odd decades ago.

SJSU also introduced me to a community of friends that I know I can trust with my very life. The group of editors that I work with to produce the school paper every day (major shout out to the Spartan Daily), my amazing group of girlfriends, that one guy friend who sometimes hangs out with us and my incredibly wise professors are not something that I can simply trade.

There are no Kylees or Elisas or Kaylas or Kristins or Professor Craigs or [insert name here] at other schools. They are here and I want to be here with them.

So yes, I didn't have the college experience of my dreams. I didn't get to go to school in New York or LA or Seattle. But I can confidently say that it was more than worth it to give up those dreams. After all, dreams come and go, but experiences are forever.

Finally, I just want to say to everyone who thought that I "deserved better." You have been proven wrong. I don't deserve to go to a better school because there is no better school for me than SJSU. I wear and will continue to wear my Spartan badge with pride.