I'm currently a senior in high school, and have dealt with very severe depression for the past 4 years. I've been hospitalized twice and have been in therapy for over two years now. Additionally, I've been prescribed probably six different medications at various points over the past two years. Anyway, I just wanted to establish some background about me and my history with depression.

In the past couple of months I've improved significantly and that reached a peak on Friday, but now I'm starting to feel the depression coming back, even if it's just slightly. Currently I'm at a really tough crossroad in my life, and I'm feeling very anxious and slightly depressed because of it. Ironically, the same news that made me feel the happiest I've ever been (or close to it) is what's causing this anxiety and depression.

So the story behind it is that last week a company flew me out to California to interview at their offices for a few days for a summer internship position. I have always loved the area their company is in (the San Francisco Bay Area) and I really love what the company is working on and my experience there for the three days was amazing. The team was super friendly, and I felt like it was a good fit for me.

Well, I got home on Wednesday night, and then Friday night I got a call from one of the co-founders extending me an offer. Apparently the entire engineering team felt like I was a good fit to work there. The offer was far better than I had imagined. $4500 a month for two months, and the option to come on full-time at the end if I feel like it's a good fit for me, at which point compensation would increase. So now here I am, 17 years old, with the potential to be making probably $65,000 salary straight out of high school at what is sort of a dream job for me.

However, I'm already admitted to university and have a decent scholarship for that as well. My parents very much want me to go to college. The problem is that I'd be making more if I take the job offer I have than the average salary for people who graduate with a 4-year degree in the field I want to pursue. In addition, the tech industry puts large emphasis on experience. So 4 years from now, when I would just be graduating with a bachelor's degree, I could already have 4 years industry experience.

Besides my parents wanting me to go to college, I also kind of want to as well. I think the social aspect of it could be great for me with depression and all and just a more comprehensive education could be good.

I basically have two good options for how to move forward. Take a high-paying job that I'll most likely love, or do the typical college experience (which will actually cost me money versus making a lot of money), which I also would probably enjoy quite a bit though. The choice is so difficult :( And as I'm trying to decide I can feel myself dropping in mood and I'm worried things will get bad again if I don't just make a decision and feel happy about it. I want to hear other peoples' opinions besides my parents, because I feel like they're close minded to anything that's not traditional, but any input for either side is welcome.