As I sat at home during break and surrounded myself with an assortment of home-cooked food, like I am sure many of my fellow classmates did, I took a moment to step back and think. I realized this semester has completely flown by. It is almost time for my second semester of junior year, which means it’s time for decisions to be made.

As an aspiring public relations professional, I have the tendency to plan everything out. So basically, I had my five-year plan in place before I even walked across my high school graduation stage. I had always planned to take a year off after I received my undergraduate degree, but lately, everywhere I turn, the topic of graduate school has seemed to be staring me in the face.

When thinking about it, we all have been attending school for roughly 14 years. That’s 14 years of sitting in classrooms, studying for tests, taking tests and receiving final grades. A time to breathe is well-deserved, but in life, is there ever a moment to breathe? After graduating, we may have a few short days to catch our breath before it’s time to look for an apartment, start to pay bills and take the steps necessary to further our careers, also acknowledging the fact that in today’s world a better degree equals more zeros on a paycheck.

So here is the dilemma: grad school or the real word? Should we dedicate another two or four years to the same routine, or should we dive headfirst into the real world and put it off till later? As I was leaning toward the latter option, my best friend asked me a question that changed my perspective.

“Amber, if you take a year off from everything school related, would you really want to go back?” she said.

Honestly, I am not ashamed to say I would not go back. It would be hard to get back into the routine of school again after a year of not being paranoid about due dates and staying up late nights just for a letter grade and not a paycheck. But could I reach my full career aspirations without a better degree? The answer to this question was no, so I decided to suck it up and began to research schools.

For some, graduate school is a given option. For example, aspiring doctors and lawyers cannot fully reach their career goals without going to medical school or law school. Would you trust a doctor with your life if you found out all he had was a four-year undergraduate degree in biology? For other majors like those in communications or business, experience seems more appealing.

I am pretty confident that we all one day want to have that dream job and life that we see in our heads all the time. To achieve this, we must not overlook options. It is a proven fact of life that even though we make plans, they often change.

Amber Patterson is a junior majoring in public relations. Her column runs biweekly on Wednesdays.