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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

When kids graduate from high school, they have many options to make sure that they take a life path that is going to work well for them. Each of the four options below will help parents to point their children in the right direction. Some people need to go straight to college after high school, but there are other things that teenagers can do once they get out of high school.

1. Go To College

Picking the right college, and paying for it, is something that parents need to work with their kids on because they may not know how to go about it. The future is determined very easily by the college education that someone gets, but parents should offer their assistance to their kids when choosing a college. Besides the cost, the student should get a chance to visit the school, learn what they might like to study and give themselves a chance to go somewhere where they are going to enjoy it. As a parent should also consider providing your child with the opportunity to live at home, work, and go to a community college so they don’t pay outrageous prices for general requirement courses.

2. Join The Workforce

The workforce is a place where many kids can jump right in after high school. Summer internships can turn into jobs, and there are many people who would prefer not to go to college. Instead, they can move out of the house and get a job if they want to become their own person and enter adulthood quickly. Kids might already have a job lined up that they would rather do than go to school. If the kid wants to work, they should be allowed to work. There are many employers who will help pay for college in the future.

3. Join The Military

There are some people who have always dreamed of joining the military. This means that they can join and begin a career in the military or simply join to get the GI Bill and have their schooling paid for. The person who wants to make a career out of being in the military can join when they are young and progress through the ranks quite successfully. The same person who does so could complete their commission and go back to college once they have finished serving their country.

4. Take A Year Off

Many people want to go to college, but they feel so constrained after high school that they need a year off to collect themselves and even find themselves. Helping your child learn their options of travel or to simply have some time to figure out who they are can be a great help in someone’s life. That “gap year” can make a big difference for your child.

Allowing them to travel to Europe or South America gives them a great chance to see the world if they haven’t been able to travel. Also, this is a good time for students to find their roots, explore the family’s history and get that experience of going abroad that many students  in college end up getting after they have chosen career paths. This allows the student to go to school the next without the intense desire to travel and miss class. It also allows them to have groundbreaking experiences that will help them reflect on who they want to be and what careers they want to pursue.

When parents want to help kids decide what to do after high school, they can offer any of these four options and their child will be able to choose the right career and life path. Students may want to travel abroad, take a job, or join the military rather than head straight to college. Allowing kids to be their own person and helping them to make these choices is one of the best ways for parents to let their kids grow into adults.

Informational Credit to Lamar Community College