What would you do?

[nudeyorker]

I'm reading an interesting book that has two endings... in that on page 1 you are given a scenario of you are a high school senior and you have the choice to go to college or travel in Europe. Depending on your choice you are directed to different parts of the book and in each chapter you are given another choice.... It is really an interesting concept and a fun read....
So what would you do....go to college or Europe?

By the way if you want a fun read it's called "Pretty Little Mistakes" by Heather McHatton. You are advised to read the book twice and take the other road to see what would happen. I have had so much fun with this I just ordered "Million Little Mistakes!

 

[hockeyguy741]

Sounds interesting I'll look for it......I'll go to Europe

 

[goodwood]

Great Post! And thanks for the book suggestion.
I will be about having the local library get this for me.
If I bought every book i wanted or was suggested to me,
i would be bankrupt.

Is that all we get? college or europe? no sort of idea if either would
be well funded? if a network of family friends would be involved to assist?
if ending up in europe with no money and no connections and in some shitty
hostel, that would suck. what would i do then? hope that i might meet someone that would be helpful or else hope that i could bat my eyes to get plane fare home?

i would go with college. theoretically while in college housing and food are provided for and after that one would have some sort of desired skill set that would be marketable to generate an income. This is what i thought when i opted for college.

but yup. i would go with college. which i did. and we all know how well that worked out. lol.

 

[nudeyorker]

What I need to tell you about this is that depending on your choice, you may or may not eventually go to college or visit Europe. But each choice you make (sort of like real life) has consequences... You meet people and fall in love or not and each choice leads to another choice or decision!

The fun thing (unlike real life) is you get the chance to go back and see what would happen if you made the other choice!

 

[yhtang]

I completed my tertiary studies in Europe and travelled around Western Europe during the holidays. I suppose I could say I had it both. Much to my regret, I did not get to enter the Eastern Bloc, as it was known in those days.

 

[Pecker]

I'd chose Europe first. Many of us at that youthful stage would benefit from an opportunity to mature a bit before tackling college and the experiences/memories would go a long way toward enhancing later academic assignments.

 

[Mem]

I would read the Europe version first.

 

[JustAsking]

IRL, Europe is the best choice. College afterwards. This book is a cool idea, though.

I do like the fact that it highlights how life is part choice and part serendipity. I dont' think kids realize how much this is true. Great careers and great lives are hardly ever planned in detail. They arise from opportunities that arise along the roads that we choose to walk on.

Each major choice has its own set of unique set of opportunities that can be exploited when you discover them, but most of them won't be anticipated until you run into them.

 

[B_Hickboy]

Euuuuuuuuuuuurope...

 

[nudeyorker]

IRL, Europe is the best choice. College afterwards. This book is a cool idea, though.

I do like the fact that it highlights how life is part choice and part serendipity. I dont' think kids realize how much this is true. Great careers and great lives are hardly ever planned in detail. They arise from opportunities that arise along the roads that we choose to walk on.

Each major choice has its own set of unique set of opportunities that can be exploited when you discover them, but most of them won't be anticipated until you run into them.

Wow it's like you already read the book!

Euuuuuuuuuuuurope...

Think back a few years and pretend you don't know she is there!

 

[B_Hickboy]

If I'd known then what I know now, I'd still have gone to Europe. I wasted my time in college, I could have gotten a head start on it by wasting some time in Spain. Or Italy. Or France. Or Germany. Or Scotland...

 

[IntoxicatingToxin]

There's a series of books like this for children as well. I had them when I was a kid! The website for this is The Official Choose Your Own Adventure Website - CYOA. They're great fun! Can read them over and over again, I loved them when I was younger.

As far as the OP's question goes, I'd say Europe! Sounds way more enlightening than college. :tongue:

 

[got_lost]

Can I still say Europe, even though I'm already here??!!? :smile:

And now I know what I have to go shopping for next week! :1244:
Thx Nudey!


I think the whole 'travelling experience is such a good life lesson and so much better than just a 'year out, which so many young people seem to take. They don't want to go to college yet are too unmotivated to travel. Sadly it's the latter that never make it to college.

 

[HazelGod]

There's a series of books like this for children as well. I had them when I was a kid!

Yep, same here. The ones I recall most vividly were adventures with Indiana Jones. That had to be sometime in the early 1980s.

@ the OP: Europe, no question.

 

[nudeyorker]

Wow...I just finished the second read through! Very fun book!

 

[midlifebear]

I'd do the Europe thing, too. Although I sort of did a poor kid's version of not going to college, getting kicked out of high school because I was gay, and with no other options open to me hitch hiked to San Francisco (it was the 60's and would do it all over again if I could) and quickly learned to become an adult and make a life for myself.

The only regrets I have with regard to attending college is that I could have chosen better universities.

 

[got_lost]

The concept reminds me of the film 'Sliding Doors'.
I love that film.
Intriguingly, at the end, the ends are pretty similar, but the paths taken are different.
I still remember that film when I think about the choices we have to take in life.

 

[Gl3nn]

Well I am in Europe already..

But I would choose college. I'm 18 and started university this year, didn't choose to travel first. I already traveled quite some bit before, so didn't really see the point. And I can always travel in the holidays.

 

[nudeyorker]

I've done some thinking about this book... and life. I think many people around my age sometime question our decisions late at night and fall victim to the "Should of , could of, would of" But after reading this book, I have come to the realization that despite some of my younger foolish, naive and misguided choices...I have in fact gone down the right road and have a wonderful life...
BTW the first time I read it I died from an allergic reaction to shell fish in Bali, and the second reading I was murdered in Brighton Beach!

 

[D_Chaumbrelayne_Copprehead]

I think it's important to get the best education you can ...

SO, I'd travel through Europe.

Then, when you get back and you have totally changed your views on people, life and the world in general, you can figure out what you want to use college for .......