No matter what Louisiana high school each of us came from, we all remember one of the biggest things we were introduced to the day we stumbled in the door as scared and confused freshman: TOPS.

It was the entire reason we sat through two years of foreign language when we would rather be cooking in home economics.

It was why we endured a year and a half of dodge ball with the PE coach we weren’t really sure was a man or a woman.

It was motivation to take ACT prep and do well on the test because our score would determine how much state aid we could get toward that expensive, but invaluable investment known as a college degree.

As far as I’m concerned, we earned our TOPS scholarships because they were well-deserved, and today we continue to keep them because we’re reproving that each and every semester.

Representative Marcus Hunter is looking to introduce TOPS legislation he believes will keep the best and brightest students working in the state.

The state would require students to work in Louisiana for the number of years they received TOPS, and students who choose to leave will carry their “debt” with them. Their employer would have to repay the money TOPS invested in the student’s education.

We as students have learned from the very beginning of our college education that rank and respect in the workplace don’t come easy.

It takes time and hard work to earn both and to prove to our employer that we’re an asset.

As college graduates without much work experience, finding an employer that’s willing to pay thousands of dollars on behalf of the new guy isn’t really probable, is it?

If we’re going to be required to reimburse the state one way or another, it should be called the TOPS loan program, not a scholarship.

Until we can be guaranteed a job in our field the day we walk off campus as alumni, this proposed legislation is unfair to each student that worked hard to earn and keep their TOPS.

Working at the cookie place in the mall for four years just because we’re required to stay here and look for jobs that don’t exist is an even bigger waste of the state’s money than us leaving.

Holding students hostage in the Louisiana job market isn’t the answer.

The answer is to let us go out and experience different and more efficient ways of working with people and technology so we can bring that knowledge home and apply it.

We take classes like international business and business communication because we’re expected to become better and to think bigger.

We’re expected to open our minds and experience business, culture and people outside of our home community because that is the forward direction.

If we don’t move forward we, not only as a community but as a state, will be left facing yet another obstacle on our way to creating jobs and a healthier Louisiana to call home.

In a state that’s constantly trailing behind the rest of the nation, not only in education but also in work technique, it’s become obvious the way we’re working isn’t efficient.

If the up and coming generation doesn’t go out and find the changes that Louisiana needs, what hope do we have?