Don't send your daughter to college...

I was just a kid when I got out of high school, and my sister was still young. I was accepted into a college and excited to go, but I knew I needed more experience. I was a year older than most of the other students I graduated with (grade skipping) and was pretty excited about my opportunities, but was a I ready to leave home? I asked my mother for advice (my father had passed away), and she said to get a job, come back in a year or two if I still wanted to go. I still had most of the money from my father's insurance, so I spent the summer picking up odd jobs. When fall rolled around, I had a good idea of what I wanted to do. I went to college and got my degree. It was much easier the second time around.<br><br>My sister didn't take my advice. She got a degree as well, but she went straight to college and was grossly underprepared.<br><br>She was lonely, homesick, and felt abandoned in a big city. She was misinterpreted as being stuck up or aloof because she didn't have a lot of friends. Eventually she got lured into one of those relationships where she was treated poorly by a man who made her feel loved (you know what I'm talking about). He convinced her to leave college and be a "stay at home girlfriend" (yeah, right) for him. He doted on her, told her she was beautiful, and she got to stay in bed all day. That didn't last a month. He broke up with her and left her with no money and no place to stay. She ended up moving in with me and going back to college. She graduated a year later than I did, but she was far more capable.<br><br>Don't send your daughter to college until she is ready to leave home. The world is a cruel, evil place, and there is nothing a woman hates more than being vulnerable.<br><br>Edit to add: A lot of you are wondering why we didn't have a father figure in our lives. I was about 7 years old when he passed away. My sister was a baby.