From elementary school, to middle school, to high school. After a very long road of memories, laughter, and hardship, every senior is asked the same question: What direction are you going after high school?
Because no one truly knows what someone else’s life is like, every senior has their own story, and it’s even possible that some roads might lead to the same place. For example, seniors Iona Sills and Aurora Kline said that they both plan to study criminal justice in college. Rowdy Stout and Robby White, who also plan to attend colleges, said they would both like to be married with children. White plans to go to Marshall University to major in business management and Stout plans go to West Virginia University to major in biology.
College isn’t the only path a person can choose. College can be expensive and a job isn’t promised to every diploma-holder. John Wade plans to study at a trade school, which is a place that offers hands-on training in a variety of job-specific fields like culinary arts, welding, and cosmetology, among others. Although the trade he wants to study is still up in the air, Wade said, “I want to retire early, have two or three kids and live comfortably.”
Tanner Boggs plans to go into OSHA straight after high school. OSHA stands for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “I’ll be the guy holding the clipboard,” Boggs said. “Wearing a hard hat making sure everyone is safe in their work environment.” He sees himself in ten years still working for OSHA, and with a wife by his side.
Life after high school can be scary. The future isn’t predictable and nothing is promised, but uncertainty doesn’t always have to be bad. Sometimes young adults’ lives go according to their specific plans, but sometimes unexpected paths open up in front of them that bring their own kind of happiness. For example, neither one of the Communities in Schools teachers planned to be even be working for the school system. Mrs. Sommer Carter went to college to major in criminal justice. She put that dream on pause for her now-husband and family. She got into helping a kid with homework and gave him his favorite candy and lunches to work towards to keep his grades up. She knew that when a job opened up this is where she would want to be.
Mrs. Natasha Boggs wanted to be a nurse when she graduated high school and that is what she did for a while. She became a certified nursing assistant (CNA) and did clinical rotations in emergency rooms. After a child came in with a pencil stuck in their eye she knew emergency medicine wasn’t for her, so she moved to the Robert C. Byrd Clinic, but that didn’t work for her because she started to bring her work home with her. Then she moved into medical billing but stopped to start her family. She got into the school system through mentoring kids at White Sulphur Springs Elementary School, fell in love with the program, and is now helping out at both Greenbrier East and Alderson Elementary.
So be open to all opportunities, and know that college is not the only pathway after high school.
