May 1st was College Decision Day all around the country and for some it, was a huge step to the rest of their lives. It is a reward for all the hard work high school Seniors put into the application process as early as the end of their Junior year, and to finally commit is comparable to a huge weight lifting off your shoulders.

Here at Whitney M. Young, we have a wide variety of students attending Ivy League Colleges like Stanford, Harvard, and Yale. While some lucky full-ride scholarship students are committing to the best schools in the country, some students are managing money and trying to figure out how much their student loans are going to be. Then there’s the students that want to live their lives and take a gap year. Noah Webster, 17, “Doesn’t know what to do with his life, and a gap year can help that.” Also, there’s the unfortunate souls looked down upon for not getting accepted regular decision and are trying for Rolling Admissions. And no one speaks of the students deciding community college will be cheaper and easier to manage.

Decision Day dawns on these people like a summer thunderstorm on the morning of a picnic. But it shouldn’t be considered taboo to take a gap year, continue applying for college past the regular decision deadline, talk about the massive student loans that students will have to tie themselves down to or going to community college. They may not have a college decision yet, but they have made their decisions. They want to enjoy life while they are young. They don’t want to give up on applying even when their own teachers put them down. They are willing to sell their souls for a college education. They want to get their basics at community colleges. And that is their Decision.