Deciding to graduate early was the best academic decision I have made during my high school career. Freshman year, the idea of early graduation was brought up to me by an upperclassman who was currently in the process. Sophomore year, I decided to take action and talk to my counselor to set up the plan we would work through in my final two years of high school.

The process was fairly easy, I had to think about the credits that were already obtained and how many more were needed. I took an extra English class my junior year and only needed to take Consumer Education to have all my credits needed to graduate. There was an option to take the course online and graduate after junior year, but that seemed too early for me. I was required to write a letter to the assistant principal. She had to approve my outline of my plan for after graduation and how it would be beneficial to my future.

After this semester, I will attend College of DuPage and take a few general education courses so that when I transfer to the University of Missouri, the four-year university I will be attending in the fall, I won’t have to take them. This is a benefit considering that CoD offers the same but significantly less expensive courses that I would be taking at a bigger university. Many colleges allow students to apply as freshmen even if they have college credit rather than a transfer student, as long as they did not exceed the limit of credit hours. CoD’s courses are $135 per credit hour whereas University of Missouri are $612.90 per credit hour for non residents of Missouri.

Some students, may think graduating early isn’t a good option because they believe that they couldn’t attend prom or the graduation ceremony, but graduating a semester early does not pull me out of these activities. Although missing second semester is sad, moving on and furthering my education a semester early is what is best for me.

Kayla Lindberg, our social media editor, is leaving our staff at the end of first semester. Even though her time with us was short, she will continue to help out on staff whenever she can and plans to go to The University of Missouri to continue on the path of Journalism.