What do you want to be when you grow up? Where do you want to go to college? How many times does the average high school student hear these words uttered by parents, teachers, and friends alike before their big graduation day? Most high school students are expected to go straight to college and major in something that will earn them a big paycheck in four or so years. But what if a high school student doesn’t want to go straight to college? Some might question whether that can even be possible in today’s culture. But we have alumni from our own Broomfield High School who are out to prove that the path to success doesn’t always mean college first or even college at all.

Much like any other 18 year old, Kali Zack, class of 2016, had applied for many colleges and scholarship programs her senior year. She had even decided which college to attend. Then, just before graduation, she received notice that she had been accepted into a prestigious program operated through the U.S. State Department, which chooses 25 students from around America to live in Germany and work as youth ambassadors for a year. Kali, who has always been passionate about travel, jumped at the chance to be able to explore a new country. During her stay, she will work several internships, most recently under the guidance of a doctor at a hospital. “There isn’t really anything I don’t like,” Kali said about her experience so far, “but that’s not to say that this is easy. Going to school where I don’t speak the language and working in a country that has extremely different expectations [than America] is definitely tricky.” After her year in Germany, Kali plans on attending college. This gap year will allow her to figure out what her passions are before spending thousands of dollars on it as a major.

On the other hand, Andy Kowalski joined the United States Air Force after graduating in 2014. As a senior, he didn’t know what he wanted to major in, and he decided that he shouldn’t spend money on something that didn’t interest him. Though sometimes he feels as if he is missing out on college life, Andy, who is currently deployed in Qatar, loves that he gets the chance to travel and have a career directly out of high school. He has also been in many situations that have taught him valuable lessons that he wouldn’t have learned in college. On top of earning a salary instead of being an in-debt college student, because Andy is in the Air Force, he gets free healthcare, and when he finishes his deployment, he gets college paid for by the government.

Unlike Andy and Kali, Nick, another Broomfield alumni, does not see college in his future. After high school, Nick traveled across Europe and Central America, only working during the summer in order to fund his next adventure. After spending the better part of two years out of the country, Nick is now working to create his own company, beginning in Boulder. Even though he has never been to business school, Nick says that he would “rather figure it out on [his] own and learn how to actually live instead of just how to study.” Nick has always been one to do what he wants and prove people wrong, and his decision to start his own business Is a reflection of his ambition.

As students begin seriously thinking about where they will end up, they should be encouraged to think beyond going to straight to college. They should be motivated by what makes them happy, whether that is spending a year as a drifter in Europe like Nick, going military to make some money before college as Andy did, or just spending a year figuring life out and earning job experience like Kali. Students don’t have to follow the path that everybody else does, just because it’s easy. As Andy says, “I thought I took the path less traveled for one specific reason, but now I can’t find a reason not to take this path.”