The decision to enroll in college can be a difficult choice. Many people follow a standard time frame going from High School directly to college and utilize more idealistic means in choosing where they will go to college. Idealistic means such as where their parents went, what the campus is like or whether its academics cater to a specific lifestyle or career choice. Others, like me, must base their decision on where they attend based on more realistic means. So what makes Western Governors a more realistic choice for people like me? In order to give you a better idea of why I decided on WGU as my choice for higher education let me begin with what brought me to decide that college was important for me at all. I had barely finished High School, had moved out from my parents and lived from place to place at an early age. I had no idea what my ambitions were or what I wanted to do with my life. Instead of deciding what I wanted to do with my life I just went from day to day until life seemed to decide for me. I worked my way up through food service jobs gaining experience and credentials over the years. I even got to a point of comfort or perhaps it was better defined as a point of complacence. I had started a family and had a job that afforded the bills and the occasional luxury. What my education and current career did not afford was security and self fulfillment. Not only was I not happy working food service anymore but I was suddenly laid off and unemployed during the current economic downturn. Management jobs that once came easy but with limitations now passed me over completely. With such a pool of applicants why would they choose the person with experience but no education when they could pay the same for somebody with experience and education? Unemployed, under educated and frustrated I felt ready to give up. I needed a degree to, at the