HSS, I did not mean to imply that my year in seminary was not a valuable one. On the contrary, it was a spiritually enriching experience. While the hanhala of my seminary generally disagreed with college attendance, the ideas I learned there, and what I learned about myself, prepared me for college and for life afterwards in a way that my high school education did not.
However, I still maintain that my year in seminary did not teach me as much about living independently as my freshman year in college did. My years in college, among people who knew very little about Judaism, forced me think about why I keep the Torah. In a way, this time, and my time in the workforce afterwards, were a kind of practicum where I applied the Jewish education I’d received.