It depends. School isn't for everyone. I took a partial gap year and took a couple college classes with a good friend who dropped out and went on to become a

It depends. School isn't for everyone. I took a partial gap year and took a couple college classes with a good friend who dropped out and went on to become a journeyman in a union trade. I went on to get a bachelor's degree. School wasn't his thing. He continues to makes more than a lot of software/data engineers. And he has a pension that should* start paying out more than a decade before I'll be ready to retire. *Interestingly though, because fewer people are going into the trades, he has noticed the quality of incoming people has gone done year after year and the aging union leadership has lowered the hiring bar to keep the pension numbers up. He can't count on people to do their job right or even show up on time, and they come in already knowing everything and not wanting to learn. With higher cost than non-union and struggling with quality it makes them less competitive with non-union shops in the contract bidding process. There are good opportunities for people willing to work hard and learn.