Pendell

Pay it down over a period but it doesn't have to be a year, if you can comfortably do it in six months that's good for your credit.

ynab has some good guides on this last I saw

among other things, credit scores care about debt utilization ratio (how much outstanding debt vs total available lines of credit), consistent payment history, and age of accounts

if you have a good history on the credit card making payments on time, you can try calling them up/going online and asking for an increase in your limit, which will lower your ratio

paying it off slow means you will pay more in total, if you know it will take you a while see if you can get a debt consolidation loan with a credit union, you'll have consistent payment history on that loan and it'll be less than leaving it on a potentially high interest card

also check to be sure your card you're using does not have annual fees or the like, if it does you may want to see if you can get the card changed to a different product from the same issuer that does not have that. this is preferable to closing an account, since doing that would lower your average age of accounts (adding new ones will also hurt this metric, but can be worth it for a card with better terms or lowering your debt utilization ratio)

the thing you really should do is save 10% every single time you get paid. never touch it. unless the world is literally ending or you have enough to retire comfortably. i wish i could figure out how to make myself do this. it's just such solid advice.