When it comes to picking out a college to go to after high school, a lot of people expect they will go to a four-year university. At least when I went to high school, that’s what a lot of my peers thought.

I thought the same thing until it was the end of my junior year of high school and I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t even have any applications started or anything for any colleges.

That’s when I decided maybe school after high school wasn’t for me. But then my boyfriend said he wanted to go to Green River College. My first thought was, “community college? That sounds terrible and not like a real school.”

The more I looked into it though, the more I liked the idea.

To attend Green River, it was about $1,500 a quarter for me to be a full-time student in comparison to about $11,000 for an out of state four-year school, depending on the school. Going to a community college before a four-year was also convenient because you could complete all of your general education requirements for way less than doing it at a four-year school.

I was also very unsure about what I wanted to major in, which made going to community college an even better choice because I could basically take whatever classes I wanted to test the waters and see what I liked and didn’t like.

What really caught my eye about Green River was that they had a soccer team, so I jumped at the opportunity. I ended up getting a scholarship to play soccer there for two years.

So I spent two years at Green River and I have to say, it was one of the greatest choices I’ve ever made. I not only saved money, I figured out what I wanted to do and I got to play soccer for an extra two years, which was important to me. If I had gone to a four-year college, there was a way less likely chance for me to continue playing.

I had taken about three criminal justice classes and fell in love with them at Green River. So when deciding on what to do, I chose to major in criminology. Now the hard part came. What university did I want to go to?

Well into my second year at Green River, my friend who went to school at the University of Montana suggested I take a look at the campus, which I did and I thought it was OK. I ended up deciding on going there for school, even though that was not was I was expecting. I really thought I would go to school in Washington.

When I went to the transfer orientation that spring at the University of Montana, I was nervous. I had no idea what to expect, but it ended up being really helpful.

It was also nice because since I received my Associates degree at Green River, I didn’t have to stay with other students to figure out what general classes I needed to do, I was able to jump right into my major. With a few exceptions, like having to take some classes the university required, but weren’t at my community college. So that would be a step I missed before moving on to a four-year.

I also decided to minor in journalism, which little did I know was another one of my greatest choices.

By the second week of school I had decided I wanted to change my major to journalism and my end goal was to be sports reporter or photographer. So by joining the School of Journalism at the University of Montana, I not only fell in love with the school, I finally knew what I wanted to do with my life.

So what I am trying to get across here is, go to community college before university if you have no idea what you want to do. Or even if you do. It not only saves you money, but it allows you to adjust to the world of college at a slower pace rather than just jumping into it two states away.

When I think of the University of Montana I think classes that count toward my future job, not a place to take just random classes.