High School!

[Jack T]

How many people here have finished high school?
dropped out and wish you didn't?
dropped out and wish you did it sooner?
how has your academic education (or lack thereof) affected your travels?

 

[smellyskelly]

...though this seems sketchy to me, i have finished high school.

 

[Jack T]

...though this seems sketchy to me, i have finished high school.

sorry if it comes off as sketchy, i'm just curious of most peoples thoughts of high school. Some people claim you gotta do it if you want any life at all, and iv'e met other people who wish that they dropped out sooner rather than wasting their time.

I personally don't think it's too important unless you're trying for some sort of college career. No one in my family finished high school but they all still managed to carve out a good life for themselves.

 

[smellyskelly]

high school was not a complete waste for me, i had really awesome elective classes such as pop culture, wilderness, stuff like that.

 

[lobotomy3yes]

I hate high school, but I finished. Is this a good thing? Absolutely. My life would not have been shaped the way it is if I had dropped out. I might not have become an anarchist either, though I think it was probably bound to happen. Going through a strict religious school taught me to think better than anything else in my life. It raised my awareness and it taught me to clear my mind of bullshit. I have to wonder sometimes, if you haven't ever been brainwashed and then became "free", how will you know in the future if you are being brainwashed?

 

[nick]

i finished it, but in no way did it help me with jobs. everything i know, i learned from volunteering/working. i got the current job i have now because of experience, don't think it'd matter if i dropped out, graduated, or got a ged.

 

[genghis braun]

I dropped out and wish that I had done it sooner. high school for me was such a humongous load of bullshit that I had to get out, and the GED was the easiest test I have ever taken in my life. I've learned more since dropping out, getting my ged and living my real life than I ever have in high school. if anybody reading this is thinking about dropping out-DO IT!

 

[finn]

I might be the oddball here, but I started in sped and by my junior year, hacked my way into an g&t program and by the time people figured out what I did, they couldn't kick me out because my grades were too good. I actually graduated, too. I think it really depends on what possibilities are there, to decide whether to drop out or stay in.

 

[Rash L]

I dropped out of normal high school originally because of my social anxiety problems and general boredom, and started homeschooling.... but then dropped out/"ran away" to go travel a few months after that. After a few months out, the squat I was staying in (Hollywood) got busted and the cops were trying to throw all these insane charges at me, and telling me they would drop them all if I would just go back home and go to school... besides all that, my mom AND my dad AND my step mom showed up in Los Angeles to pick me up so I didnt have much of a choice but to go back. I returned home and got my diploma after a month or 2 of Teacher's Assistant work (to make up for credits I lost when failing Phys. Ed. which was all that was holding me back from graduating before I left home)... so basically I dropped out a couple times, and still graduated before I should have. My completion of HS has never helped me get work - the only job I have had since then has been at a tattoo studio, and they dont really care as long as you can count money and do your job.... but maybe someday in the future it will be needed. Mostly, graduating was a HUGE thing for my mother, and I even stuck around after finishing my credits to walk with my class (of 35 students) and postponed my summer trip so that my mom could watch me get my diploma in a ceremony. Its wasnt all that horrible, it was just a tiny bit of my life I traded to make someone I love happy, and in the end I dont regret it at all.

 

[sprout]

I was a nerd. I got financial aid and scholarships to go to private school. Mostly, everyone ostracized me for not applying to college after highschool. Personally, I am enjoying my time away from history and calculus text books.

 

[LovelyAcorns]

I dropped out a year or two before technically legal, 14 or 15 or something. How old are you after 9th? Last real grade I was in, though might as well not even count that since 9th and 8th were mostly suspensions and skippings.


Eventually had a girl convince me to go to adult ed, dropped out of that twice and got "expelled", but had that reversed within two weeks. Got my diploma in the end, having never been inside a high school.

I don't really regret going back, I just regret being such a sheep second time around. Sure, I bucked, but not hard since I had the whole mentality "just calm down, get your diploma and get out", which is sad because this they felt they could pull had a lot of the kids pissed, and a with a little pressure it wouldn't of been hard to start a riot and/or occupation.

I also regret not expropriating more materials. Schools are bad ass places for free supplies.

 

[Rash L]

the biggest thing I miss about school is having hours upon hours of time being forced to sit in one place and do nothing but write. My journals would be a lot more awesome if someone MADE me sit in a chair for an hour a day that wasnt spent in a bouncy car or on a street corner where there are too many people-watching opportunities. They have a class for senior citizens at the local community college here that is supposed to be about writing your own life story.. memoirs or autobiography or whatnot. I always thought it would be pretty cool to take that class...

 

[Wolfeyes]

I got pulled out of school in 7th grade. Mom thought she could do better, then refused to admit she was wrong. Went through the courses, got my GED.

At times I regret not going to HS. Missing out on friends, etc... but then I see the shit my sister puts up with and that regret passes...

 

[tumtum]

I graduated and I'm happy I did. I grew up in a small town and I had only a couple friends so there wasn't much else to do anyway. I think I've learned a ton more by just living and traveling than I ever did while I was in school, but oh well. Hopefully some day that shit will be useful.

 

[wartomods]

i actually like highschool, theres always bitching etc, rude people, and fuck shit, but its a place where you can always go meet someone and feel at home.

 

[oldmanLee]

Get the paper.GED,or regular,get the paper.Doesn't seem worth a S**T right now,but like any tool;it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.I know it sounds bulls**t,but take it from somebody that barely made it out in 1976,it's a useful tool.And whatever skills you gather after,they are all yours.I even managed to wind up teaching for 6 months,and like to think that I made a difference.

 

[freepizzaforlife]

You cannnot look me in the eyes and tell me that everyone has to go to school and college and shit to make money and get the material things they want, Are you fucking crazy? There is an infinite vast amount of knowledge that school is just blinding you from, you think these people cutting our grass and studying to be layers are liking what they do? Nah.....the real people that are happy are the people doing nothing but expressing their creativity.


You feel me?

 

[Ravie]

never had a real graduation. i dropped out half way through my Jr year after my dad died and hit the road. then about 6 months ago i took my high school equivlency exam and passed. It's equivilent to a diploma in most states. but yes, in my opinion high school was a waste. It only made me angry, anti-social, arrested, or close to agroup home. I'm way ahead of myage so it was like hanging out with 1st graders, therefore I didn't talk to anyone I wasnt going to use...as wrong as that sounds.

 

[dirty_rotten_squatter]

Well, I was a trouble kid all the way from grade school. I had to take 8th grade twice because I spent too much time ditching and what not and in high school I was always getting suspended, and I got expelled from 3 different schools. Got kicked out of my house and decided to go do credit books in a community high school and finished early and went on my way. I wouldnt have cared either way graduating or not at the time it was just something to do till I figured out where I wanted to go.

 

[farmer john]

im in high school ... and it sux but someday when its over i will probaly be glad i completed it