but its coming home so soon

Neil Hilborn knows what's up yall | this is where i go to have all my catastrophic breakdowns | all sorts of haphazardly tagged triggers ahead stay safe kids

[catchymemes]

[renthony]

I've been seeing a lot of posts lately that tell dropouts "you can always go back!"

And that's not bad! It's true for a lot of people! You CAN go back later! You can apply to university, you can get your GED, you can pursue whatever level of education you want. It's not bad to share that message. If you dropped out and want to go back eventually, there is zero timeline. You can go back at any age, with any life experience. You do not have to graduate by a specific age.

But as someone who dropped out of college over a decade ago, sometimes "you can always go back!" starts to feel a little like an empty platitude. Sometimes it starts to feel grating instead of hopeful. Even when it might technically be true, sometimes it still feels like a hollow sentiment.

I just want to say, to anyone else out there who feels that way, who dropped out and CAN'T go back, potentially EVER, whether it's due to poverty or disability or any other reason:

It's okay to drop out and never go back. It might feel shitty, and you may even feel grief over it. That's real, and painful, and allowed. But you are not lesser. Even if you never go back, you are not a failure or a loser. Academics do not define your worth. You are not stupid. And it is almost certain that the system actually failed YOU.

With love,

A fellow burnout

[renthony]

A couple people have reblogged this with the comment that it's also okay to be totally confident in the decision to drop out, and to not grieve about it at all. And you know what? Yeah! They're right!

I personally still deal with a lot of grief about how my university career ended, but that's just one experience. I know other people with zero regrets, who talk openly about the ways that dropping out literally saved their lives. Life throws nasty curveballs sometimes.

So, to everyone who dropped out, for whatever reason, and however you feel about it: the educational system is a fucking minefield, but academics don't define your worth, and sometimes dropping out is the only option. Rock on.

[fibro-memes]

[chronicillnessmemes]

[ID: Chronic illness cat meme "But you did it yesterday" --- Yes, and today I can't move. End ID]

[descentintoentropy]

[westiec]

see the THING IS I don't feel like I ever worked hard enough to have "earned" the burnout, which is. probably how we got here.

[lavenderlemniscate]

feels like im always recovering. when do i get to live

[lavenderlemniscate]

"it's okay to rest for as long as you need from burnout" how long is it actually going to take though. there's stuff i wanna do.

[threedollarsdotcom]

hey its me your doctor. idgaf

[durandahlia]

[omtai]

Im sorry I didn’t reply to your message for three weeks. I did not forget about it infact I thought about it regularly every day. It will happen again

[baradragon]

christianity being a real facet of peoples lives instead of something you grow out of is killing me what do you mean youre 19 and still believe that mission trips are a positive force in the world

[r04ches]

am i even mentally ill or am i just living in some kind of infinite torture chamber that would make anyone like this

[asksloyxp]

Maybe if I just work harder, this empty cup will pour again

[shinyrock6498]

Maybe the cup needs a bit of time to rest and refill?

[asksloyxp]

Maybe the cup needs to lock the fuck in???

[lettuce-tv]

don't go into the humanities because they're unprofitable and don't go into stem cuz its getting torn apart right now and don't go into buisness because it's competetive and speculative and don't go into education because it pays like shit. Just lay on thr ground. Just lay on the ground.

[twinkhole-destroyer]

“nobody wants to work anymore” yeah because everyone wants to kill themselves

[sitronsangthoughts]

I've seen a fair amount of fat liberation activists explain that they have always been fat, they're not about to stop, and that's natural and beautiful and fine. That's an incredibly important message.

What I've seen less - and what I want to remind people of - is this: if you've become fat, that's also natural and beautiful and fine.

When you're a fat person who has been thin in the past, that comes with its own brand of shaming. People take your history of thinness as proof that you don't have to be fat. You often fear the look of disappointed surprise in the eyes of someone you haven't met since you were thin. People try to determine "what happened". They don't see your fat body as just you, but as a sort of symptom that isn't part of you.

Becoming fat is not a tragedy, it's not a sign of failure, it's not a bad or shameful thing. The thin you is not the Real you. You are always real and always worthy of freedom, respect and peace. You are allowed to be fat no matter how or when you became fat.

[jellyfish-are-stars]

yeah, having delusions/hallucinations is "bad," its not something a healthy brain does, but like... if you're already disordered, you're not making it worse by accepting your disorder and co-existing with it.

im schizotypal and when im stressed, i have a cast of "demons" that i feel the presence of. two are scary, and one is honestly chill. they aren't real to anyone else except me, they cant hurt me or anyone else, and they only exist in my head. but my brain is part of me. it's like most of me, and so these hallucinations do affect me.

my friends kinda play along with me, they will check rooms for me to make sure the demons cant get me, theyll go into rooms first if im scared, theyll walk me to bed if i feel in danger. i collect porcelain dolls, and i believe they protect me from "demons", when i feel afraid my friends will tell my dolls to keep me safe and scare the "demons" away.

the demons dont exist, but theyre a part of my life. i could ignore them and supress that part of my brain, but thats extremely difficult and usually makes it worse, because even though they arent real to the world, they Are real to me.

basically all this is to say, if someone believes they can turn into a wolf or that they have a real tail or sum shit, mind ur own buisness. thats theyre reality and theyre using online spaces to express that reality. the people in their real life will alert the right people if they think the person is a danger to themself or others. you reality checking them is not only totally pointless but could infact reinforce their delusions and make them More likely to be a risk. chances are that they know theyre disordered but they just wanna play into their delusions online because its a coping mechanism.

basically stfu and leave disordered alterhumans alone 🫶

[livelovelaugh-777]

[cursesandcrows]

Me for the last 15 years: im a bit burnt out rn but im sure next week will be different