For financial reasons and admittedly a feeling that I wasn't entirely mentally ready for college, I'm going to a local community college for a year
Serious advice: Don't do this. Go straight to a four-year institution unless it's completely unfeasible.
I disagree with the advice. I have taught many students who have done very well by spending two years at a community college then transferring to a state university. Students at CCs get basic classes taught with the same texts at lower cost often with less distractions. Most states provide for reasonable credit transfer rules, particularly to the public universities.
I think it depends on why you don't want to go to a 4 year school right away. If you don't have the grades to get into any, you really have no other options. If you want to save money, you'd better have all your ducks in a row regarding where you ultimately want to go, what courses you need, and what will and won't transfer. Otherwise, you're going to spend a year taking courses you'll just have to pay for and take again at a four year school.
I don't know what you mean by not being "mentally" ready for college. If you mean you don't think you're mature enough to live on your own and not have your parents pestering you to do your homework, you're going to have to grow up one way or another and I don't see how CC is going to be any more helpful in that regard than just cutting all the cords at once and going away to school. If you mean you don't feel prepared to do college-level work, CC probably won't help you in that regard either. Whenever I took summer classes at my local community college, they seemed to require less than half the effort of freshman level courses at my alma mater. One summer, I had to take geography and never even bought the book; still managed to get an A on the final because of my mile-wide, inch-deep knowledge of world geography.
