I've often felt, I don't know, guilty or silly or lazy or lame that I didn't go to college right out of high school. I could have been DONE by the time I got married, but I let various things get in the way - moving in the middle of Junior year and no longer caring about school once we moved, boys, not caring enough to figure out the money, etc. But here's the thing about waiting until now to go to school - I know what I want to be when I grow up. I guess it's fairly likely that I would have figured it out and changed my major, but do you know what I probably would have majored in if we hadn't moved and I'd gone to college right away?
Technical Theatre.
And what would I have done with this degree? Probably the same thing I did with no degree - had kids and worked mostly part-time in various retail and clerical and childcare and healthcare type jobs.
The moral of the story is NOT don't go to college right out of high school. It's that sometimes things happen for a reason. I wouldn't say EVERYTHING happens for a reason and I'm pretty sure that hearing crap like that wouldn't have mattered a bit to my 16-year-old self who was pretty ticked that we moved in the middle of Junior year, but I think I'll let go of that not-going-to-college-sooner regret. It's not doing me any good anyway.
Hopefully if/when we decide to move (it's planned, but not decided, if that makes sense), my daughter, who is already pretty ticked about the idea and it's still 3 years off, will someday forgive us when she meets her soulmate/figures out it was the right thing to do/lives happily ever after. Of course, I really hope that she will be pleasantly surprised and delighted by our new home, but if not, then someday forgiving will have to do.