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Screw the people that judge you for it.

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While you’re in college, it feels like the most important thing in the world. As soon as you leave college, it’s almost as if it never happened. No one asks about it, no one cares what classes you took or grades you got. They care about what you bring to the table–that’s it.

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Teachers, guidance counselors, and parents get fed the same narrative. Want your students/children to be successful? They’d better go to college.

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And just like that, I was a university dropout.

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I made a colossal mistake. I read a Thought Catalog article.

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Space is recoverable. The status of a college degree, the income from a job — recoverable. Time is not. This time you have now is it. You will not get it back.

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It goes like this: You’re scared but overconfident, clueless but eager to learn, just glad to be given a shot and you don’t want to screw it up. I tried to think of a few things I wish I’d been told when I was just starting, things that would have saved me some tough lessons. These are the things I still tell myself.