The Pearl 2020

~~~
From sophomore year up until November 15, 2016, I had no intention
of going to college. The timing was wrong for me to go right out of
high school as I had no idea what career field I wanted to pursue. I did see
furthering my education as beneficial and something I wanted to do eventually,
but I did not want to build up debt while looking for direction. Instead,
I had a better idea.
I was going to work right out of high school, earning commission
selling truck parts. I had an “in” for the position, someone who assured
me that if that was what I wanted to do, it would be there waiting for me.
I was going to do this for a couple of years and save my capital with a few
goals in mind. First, I’d set aside an amount for my future education, never
to be touched until I decided what I wanted to do for college. Second, I
was taught by my parents from an early age that investing money is important,
so I planned on buying into some stocks and letting them sit
through the years. Lastly, I was going to buy a decent truck, a teardrop
camper, and take off driving around the country, wherever my whims directed
me to be. I’d live minimally and cheaply, paying only for food and
gas, for as long as I could on my savings. Once those ran dry, I’d return
home, a changed person with a new outlook on life and a path to follow.
Plenty of people in my life supported this. High school teachers
loved the plan, with my English teacher insisting I blog while on the road.
My friends thought it was an awesome idea, telling me they were jealous
of the daring to do something other than go to college. My entire family
was on board, no surprise really; all my life my parents had been taking us
on spectacular summer vacations because they believed travelling was important,
that seeing the world around us was instrumental to our education.
They loved that I wanted to continue to do that, although Mom was
hesitant about me doing it on my own (“Can I come with sometimes? Can
you take a dog? Can one of your sisters ride with you for portions? Don’t
you have friends who’ll want to do this with you?”). If you would have
asked anyone who knew me and my plans at the time, they all believed as
strongly as I did that this was what I was going to do.
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