[gwbas1c]

I think the biggest difference is feeling like you're in control of your life: Are you in college because someone told you to go, or did you go voluntarily?

I really wanted a break halfway through college, so I went on co-op. This forced me to go back (to college at the end of the co-op), and I never lost my status as a student (during the co-op). But, for a little more than 6 months, I was an independent adult, working, in charge of my life, at a place where I wanted to be.

School was so much easier when I went back.