 I normally don't make it a habit to talk about myself much on this channel, but today's a special day and I've decided to do that, so today we're going to talk about why I waited to go to college and maybe figure out if that might be the right decision for you. I started going to college in Peru when I was 25 years old. To understand why I waited six full years after high school to even start college, I think I have to go back all the way to Little Meacham, right? Little Meacham was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and the Jehovah's Witness people generally do not like higher education. They're very against education. What is the best education? Our goal now is to focus on and intensify our promotion of the pursuit of divine education. They kind of sort of think that you're going to probably grow up and maybe not believe in God anymore. Fun fact that happened, but that wasn't because of college in my case. As a result of growing up in that environment, I never really had anybody pushing me towards college. Like my parents never talked to me about college. There was zero influence towards higher education in my life. I didn't even have a college counselor at my high school because I was homeschooled. My parents pulled me out of school in ninth grade because they felt that the people around me were bad influences. They were no direction whatsoever when it came to my education. Like I literally taught myself from 10th through 12th grade. I think me doing that also made me a little bit resistant to college because like, what do I need college for? I could just teach myself anything. But I still in the back of my mind was like, you should go to college. Like that's what people are supposed to do. You're supposed to graduate high school, go to college, get a job, live a life, etc, etc. So there was a big turning point for me and it was around the time I was about 18. I had the time was fascinated with computers. I was like building them in my basement ever since I was 13. I was taking like little freelance tech jobs. And I had this sort of vision of me being like, you know, the computer guy. Bud Light presents Real Men of Genius. Today we salute you, Mr. Company Computer Guy. Mr. Company Computer Guy. And that dream kind of fell apart as soon as I tried to apply for like my first real steady job in tech, the geek squad. Like I went to a Best Buy and I walked in and I walked to the geek squad desk and I was like, here's my resume. I'm 18 years old, but I really want a job. I love computers. I just want to like be around them all day. They told me that I didn't have a degree and I thought that was absurd. I was like, what? This is an entry level computer job and I can fix any problem that any customer would have. And yet I can't get this job because I'm not in the process even of getting a degree. It pissed me off. It was really irritating. It's like, here's this thing that I'm extremely passionate about. Here's this thing that I would love to do. I have all the skills I need, but I don't have a piece of paper that says I have those skills. I kind of got this mentality of like, I never want to go to college because I was so frustrated by that one single experience. So at that point, my plan was pretty much just to keep working, save up some money, move out with some friends and start my own life around the time I was 19. And then this happened. We're now down 43 percent. What in the world is happening on Wall Street? My parents actually were going to lose their house, right? My dad had no job. We couldn't pay for the mortgage. And so the bank was going to take our house. And so I'm looking at complete unemployment, no opportunities around me and homelessness within the next three months. And that was when I started thinking I need to get out of here. And that's what eventually led me to go to Peru. I figured I could go to Peru and get a job as an English teacher without any sort of degree or experience because all you need is this, right? And this, just if you can speak English and you look like a native English speaker, there's a lot of white privilege involved in that. Then you can probably get a job teaching English. And that's exactly what I did. All my success as an English teacher only reaffirmed my hatred for college in general. Like I was sitting there thinking I do not need to go to college for this because I'm really good at the job. And the truth is I was. I mean, I sucked when I started teaching. You know, I think most teachers do. I kept moving up in my jobs, making more money. And it got to a point where I was like, I don't need a degree for this. I'm already better than a bunch of the people around me who do have a degree. But once again, that same problem that I had at Best Buy kind of arose in a new way for me to start getting into the better schools and the better jobs that paid more money, they expected me to have a degree. When I would go to job interviews, they were like, what about your degree? Where's your degree? I don't have a degree. I don't want a degree. It started to become an uncomfortable problem for me. I actually got a really good job at a really good private school in Peru. And it was like the best job I had ever had. My salary literally doubled, but they still expected me to start getting a degree. And I chose this public university in Peru, which I talked about once on a live stream. If you're curious, you can go watch some of that. I couldn't just go to school full time. I needed like a program that was kind of flexible. So I found this program that was like hybrid. It was partially online. You would go on Sundays for like a few hours and do your classes there. And it kind of really fit me well because I already had this experience of like, you know, teaching myself from home school days. So I felt like I could do it. It fit my schedule. It fit my budget and it was the right fit. I had avoided it for all these years. And then finally life said, listen, bitch, you got to get a degree. And I said, OK, fine. When I started it, I wasn't really that enthusiastic. I was getting good grades. I was doing good work, but I just didn't really feel like this is where I needed to be. My education degree did teach me a lot of stuff. And on top of that, it also confirmed a lot of my beliefs. Things that I was doing in classes suddenly made a lot of sense. Like I was doing things the right way without realizing that it was the right way. When I was in class, I understood, oh, OK, what you're doing is like putting this specific theory into practice. You are applying this person's ideas. And I started to get interested in the authors and in the theories that I was learning about, buying a lot more educational books, you know, reading guys like Paulo Freire, for example, who's like my spirit guide. Because of that education, I actually ended up learning a lot more about education and becoming a better teacher as a result. I look back now at my rejection or resistance to college and I realized that I was way off. So if you're thinking like maybe I want to wait to go to college or maybe you're feeling really pressured to go to college right after high school, here's some things for you to think about. Like, first of all, you should go to college when it's the right moment for you. And that might not be immediately after high school. Maybe you didn't start planning ahead of time and you're like rushing to do your applications. Take a gap year. Like, even if you just take one year off, a gap year can be super beneficial to you. Check out the video that I just published last week about the two girls who got into Columbia. They both took gap years and they loved it. And because they took those gap years, they were able to make much better applications and they ended up getting into freaking Ivy League college with a full ride scholarship. Waiting can sometimes be the best thing you can do, especially if you haven't really been preparing yourself for college yet. Something else to think about too is your own individual maturity. Like, if you're not genuinely ready to start taking care of your own shit, doing your laundry, planning your finances, you know, cooking your own meals and doing all the stuff that an adult has to do, maybe you need to wait. Maybe you need to work on those skills because if you go straight to college and you've never done any of those things, it might be hard for you. And I also think your finances are really important because the main reason I didn't just go to college anyway after high school was because the only way I could have done it during that financial crisis was to get into a lot of debt. And I look at all these other people who have tons of college debt and how much it holds them back and how much it affects their lives. And I feel like I made the best decision possible. Like, I got my degree for less than a few thousand dollars. I have a much better life now. Like, I can earn plenty of money and I don't have to pay the bank. And that has made me a freer, happier person. Seriously, people, debt is pretty much the enemy, avoid it as much as possible. I did not want to get into a bunch of college debt and I'm really glad that I didn't. If you personally don't feel ready or if your college application process has not been really smooth so far or you just don't have the money right now, maybe it's best for you to wait. I realize that that also has some consequences. If you wait six or seven years like me to go to college, you're gonna miss out on a lot of the cool college experiences. Like, I never got to have the frat party or, you know, hang out in a dorm room with friends or just like join a bunch of clubs or, you know, just be on a campus with like thousands of other people my age. But the program that I did really did expose me to a lot of great people. I made some great friends who I still hang out with to this day. And I've had a lot of fun anyway, even though it was a very different experience from what most people go through. But it was the right experience for me at the right time and I think that that's what matters most. Don't be afraid to wait. If you're a young person watching this, like you're probably gonna live to at least 100 years old because of advances in modern medical technology. Like by the time you're 50, they will have cured so many things and you'll just live forever and ever and ever. What's a few years, right? Like, you're gonna make it. I'll probably die at 80 if I'm lucky. You might as well take your time. I mean, this is a pretty big decision that you're gonna make as far as like what you're gonna study and where you're gonna study and how much money you're gonna spend to study. It's the kind of decision that you should make intelligently, you know, take your time and think about it. I feel sometimes kind of hypocritical because like I tell all of you guys to go to college and I like go visit colleges and I tell everybody about the college experience and I don't really feel like that makes sense coming from me, someone who waited years and years to go to college and did not have that traditional experience. But that's one of the reasons why I've made this channel and it's because I wish that I knew what I know today. I really, really wish that I had had this kind of information and so when I talk to this camera, when I talk to you, I'm trying to fill in that void, you know, like that stuff that was missing from my life when I needed it most. I hope that I'm accomplishing that goal, you know, giving you the information you need to make better decisions. I could have had so many more options available to me. If I had known that I could have gone to school in like Germany for free, you know, I would have done that probably. Like there's so many options that I missed out on or never considered because I just didn't have that information and there was nobody to tell me, nobody to guide me. That's why I'm your college counselor. Like I wanna do for you what I didn't have. Super huge thank yous to everybody watching this video right now. Like you're the reason I'm still here and you're the reason this channel has been growing and has met my biggest goal to date, which is monetization. I'm probably only gonna get like pennies for a while. I don't know, I'll put like a screenshot of how much and I'll show you how small of a number it is. I'm just happy that we've made it past that stage. Like we're now in that growth stage where like I can see the channel getting more and more attention. I can see more engagement and that brings me to my next goal. I don't wanna make a sub goal. I wanna make a comment goal. I want comments every day. I would love to have just 10 comments a day. That would be like an awesome goal for me. The thing I love most is answering your questions and doing what I wanna do, which is be your college counselor. Like give you the advice you need. The comments that you leave are the best way for me to interact with you. So just ask whatever you want. Like I like answering your questions. I like helping people. So making videos is great but actually interacting with you is even better. So thank you all so much for your support of the channel and for just helping this become the resource that I want it to be and I will see you next week.