Broken

The Teenager called last night.

It’s been about a month since he drove himself to Greeley, CO for a summer internship with the United Way.

“How’s it going, Walt? What are you working on?”

“Good! Besides working the charity bike race they are teaching me how to write grants, so that’s mostly what I’ve been doing. Not only that but two different people with Americorps have called, and they want me to interview for leadership positions, so I’ll be talking to them next week.”

“Well, damn, Walt, that sounds pretty cool,” I said.

And it is.

Three years ago Walt was accepted to East Carolina University and, despite my reservations, he wanted to go.

At least, he thought he wanted to go.

How could he not?

When you’re 18 years old in America, and especially if you’re smart, from a good family, and you went to an excellent high school, it’s all about college.

From teachers, counselors, family. Even friends.

What schools have you applied to?

What campuses have you visited?

Have you decided where to go?

Have you decided on a major?

No? What do you mean, no? You haven’t?

Well son, you better get your shit straight real quick, because if you don’t go to college immediately after high school, you’re going to ruin your entire fucking life!

So he went.

And by November he was doing what most kids do their freshman year - languishing about the campus with no clear direction, unsure of what he wanted to do, and feeling incredibly pressured by a system that demanded he declare a major before fall classes even started.

(That’s no joke, they wanted him to declare a major at his orientation.)

He withdrew the following January.

But this isn’t about Walt being broken. He’s not, by any measure.

This is about the system being broken. We have got to stop teaching our kids that the only option for a successful life is to get a four-year degree immediately after they graduate high school.

After Walt was back home, an old friend from high school, Timmy Christy Ziemer (Timmy), told me about a program called Americorps, where kids between 18 and 25 can volunteer for all sorts of community service projects. Walt signed up with FEMA Corps and spent the next ten months traveling the Southeast United States and spent time in Puerto Rico working on getting the power grid back up after the hurricanes.

For six months after that, he volunteered locally with The Red Cross where he got a first-hand look at how non-profit organizations function.

Now he’s in Colorado where he’s getting a paid education in grant writing. Over ten weeks, he’ll get more real-world experience than most college kids get in all four, five, or even six years of college.

Meanwhile, two more graduating classes of kids just like Walt have headed off to college, and look what a shit show it’s becoming. The wealthy are paying enormous sums to bribe their children’s way into top schools, and Bernie Sanders is calling for all $1.6 Trillion in student debt to be canceled because nobody can afford to repay it.

$1.6 TRILLION! That’s insane.

But it doesn’t surprise me. I don’t need more than about half of my fingers and toes to count the number of people I know who have actually paid off their loans.

I wish I’d known about programs like Americorps before Walt even applied to college. I had a vague notion that college wasn’t right for him at that time, but I didn’t have a viable alternative to provide.

But now my eyes have been opened.

Through this experience, Walt has found a sense of direction that I haven’t seen in more than a handful of kids, and that includes my graduating class. He knows what he wants to do with his life and he knows it from actual experience and not theoretical discussions about what he wants to be when he grows up.

Plus, he’s already earned a $6,000 education credit and has the opportunity to make that amount again so, if he does decide to go back to school, it will be at least partially paid for.

In just five years, Jack will be “college-aged.”

If he can come up with the cash or scholarships to pay for it himself and he really wants to go right after college, then I guess I can’t stop him. But, if he wants me to pay for it or sign for any loans, then you can bet he’ll be taking some time off first to do something like Americorps.

And the same will be true for Lilly, Lily, and Sam.