This is something I feel like I'm doing more and more every day.
The world seems to push that you must go to a four year college in order to get a decent eduacation and you must go right out of high school.
The comments I get from my extended family and even strangers in my workplace can get tiring and quite frustrating, to be completely honest. Yesterday I had a customer tell me I should have gone straight to college instead of taking the year off. I was so irked that my emotions played on my face and my supervision (who is like a great-aunt to me) asked me what was wrong.
Something that is also heartbreaking is the percentage of Christians who lose their faith in college. It's so sad to see even my best friend, who is attending a private Lutheran college in Iowa, is finding that everything she though she believed in is shattering before her very eyes. They are teaching her evolution and now she explained to me over the phone tonight that she believes a mix of God and evolution. (And we're not talking the kind of evolution in plants and such.)
I have close friends who get distracted from their faith by the newfound freedom of adulthood and no boundaries that they do things they wouldn't at home such as drinking (getting drunk), going to parties (with alcohol involved), getting way overly affectionate with people you meet that night, ect. I seriously want to cry over the decsions my friends have made when I knew they were Christ loving people!
It makes me scared for my own experience. I don't plan on going to a four year University, but I plan on going to a Community College. Obviously, since I won't be living on campus I don't feel like I'll have to worry too much about worldly distractions, but you never know! I'm already planning to investigate more of what I believe in because I don't feel I could defend my faith very well. I've been raised in it, so I never thought to question why? Why do I believe in God and Jesus being my Savior? This is not to say I don't believe, but I want to understand what I believe in so I can grow closer to the Lord.
So, I hope if you ever feel like the world is against you, you are not alone. When we chose to believe in God, He never said it would be easy. I'm learning that more now than ever before.
I'm sorry for the rant, but these are some things that have been weighing on my mind for the past couple days and I felt like it would be good to share it.
Stay strong my fellow believers! Stay strong!
~Calen
I'm determined to get to professional grade in that area, and I think that's enough. Worst thing that'll happen is that I won't get hired by some company because I don't have the proper 'credentials.' Which I don't plan on doing anyway. I'm going to freelance. 
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