Dropping Out of College Made Me a Better Person

Why I left college, and how doing so helped my focus myself, build my skill set and find success. 

I’ve never been quite the person for school. I never was in the top 10% at school, but I’ve gotten great grades, making the honor roll in high school and the dean’s list in college.

I enjoyed every day on campus. I remember walking into my residence hall on move in day. Our hall contained five “gamers”, five girls, and ten hockey players. I was one of the gamers, studying “Game Development and Design.”

I made great friends with my roommate, and later met a few other people on campus, and we worked on a game together. We pitched our game at a local game pitching competition at Microsoft, and won. Our prize allowed us to work on it full time during a summer internship.

However, one day during my summer internship, which took place at my college, I realized I wasn’t getting anything out of what I was studying. I wasn’t paying for an education, I was paying for friends and networking opportunities. Even better, the game I was working on that won me an award, made me almost fail my actual game design classes. Ironic, right?

In August 2013, I didn’t return for my sophomore year of college. I reached out to many of the friends I initially connected with over the school year and my internship, and had a handful of them reply almost instantly with paying internship positions.

For the first time in my life, I had a paying position in the games industry. A dream I had many, many, years ago when I was a little kid actually became true, and I didn’t even have a college degree.

I felt successful.

I focused myself and narrowed down my broad skill set of “Game Development and Design” to Marketing and Public Relations for video games.

I’ve gotten great recommendations from my current employers which are already leading to a bigger and better future for me in the games industry, entertainment industry and in marketing in public relations in general.

Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t go to college. Some of the friends I’ve made during just my one year at college are some of the best friends I’ve ever made. I even have plans to continue my schooling part time, at a smaller, online school, focusing deeply on marketing and public relations.

What I am saying is that away from school and with self-discipline, I’ve been able to accomplish and learn a lot more on my own time.

By not having to worry about homework or a test I am able to focus myself, study what interests me, and even put a little bit of money in my own pocket.