After high school, almost every graduate attends a college of their choice. Very few immediately join the workforce or the military. Whenever someone mentions they’re doing something different — say, taking a gap year to travel or pursuing a career in art — more often than not, they’ll receive that dreaded, “Good luck with that” look.

The question is, why?

Why are we all so against doing things that are out of the ordinary? Or at least accepting that others want to do so?

The dictionary definition of success is this — “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.”

Everyone has a different purpose, as well as different aspirations and goals — meaning there is no true definition of success, so why do we act like there is?

Why do we act like achieving high test scores and attending college is the only key to succeeding in life?

Success can be becoming the CEO of a major company, but it can also be just doing what you love to do — whether it be making music, working with livestock, doing volunteer work in your free time or even becoming a freelance writer. For some, success is simply happiness.

We need to stop acting like getting a college degree in order to make money in order to be extremely well-off is the answer to it all. For some, it can be, but that’s not always the case.

Instead of putting so much pressure on each other to conform to the desired traits of society, why not push each other to discover our true dreams and our own definitions of success?

No one wants to spend thousands of dollars on college only to find what they actually want to do with their life doesn’t require a college degree.

The world doesn’t need billions of CEOs.

The world needs many different people doing many different things.