its kinda scary how your whole life depends on how well you do as a teenager
oh my god No it doesn’t don’t put this kind of pressure on people?? you can absolutely fuck up in your teen years and continue on to a good life just fine. you can drop out of school, get a GED, still go to college and finish your degree as late as you want. i know people in my school who still haven’t graduated and they’re 26. some older. you can always transfer someplace else, always build yourself up from the ground. after a certain amount of college credits, a lot of schools really don’t care about your high school GED or your SAT scores anymore. if you fuck up in your teenage years you are not a failure!! you can ALWAYS re-invent yourself, always start over. there is always a second chance.
Reblogging this for my followers freaking out over art school/college. I dropped out of high school and never thought I’d get into college as easily as I did. You will be fine!
Fun story my biology professor just told us: When he was 23 he was married to his wife and worked two jobs to support them since she was in college: gas station attendant and construction worker. He worked these two jobs because that was the only work he could get since he was at the reading level of a third grader.
One night he was writing something and his wife noticed he was writing from right to left. Since she was studying occupational therapy she realized he had a learning disability and started working with him. He slowly began to learn to read, and at 26 got his GED and went to college.
His first year of college he took the lowest level math course he could take, 001. Over the years he worked on learning what he needed to, ended up graduating with a biology degree. He then went on to get his masters and PhD, graduating at the top of his class. He is now an extremely accomplished biologist and professor.
So don’t let anyone tell you that you’re future is based on your choices as a teenager.
Seriously. Do not believe this. You aren’t even stuck with your choices you make in your 20s. I didn’t start working in my current field until just after my 30th birthday. It has nothing to do with what I went to school for in my 20s. My husband has a political science degree, and he’s a sports journalist.
You are not tied to anything. Go. Be.
My day job did not exist when I was a teenager. And the idea of trying to be an author was a distant thing on my radar. I thought I was going to be an English teacher. And then I thought I was going to be a music teacher. And then I thought I was going to be a drama teacher.
Also in there: therapist, early childhood educator, then finally: web developer–because by then it was an actual thing that existed. I didn’t actually figure out what I “wanted to do when I grew up” until about eight years ago, when I was 36. I tried pursuing writing when I was 30, stopped, then started pursuing it seriously again when I was 40.
There is always time to change. And don’t let anyone tell you that high school is “the best time of your life” either, because that’s bullshit too.
Reblogging for my followers. My high school teachers didn’t know what to do with me, and I failed everything but a low photography grade. I thought university wasn’t for me, and settled for marrying a mediocre man who spent all day on Warcraft. Then I went to community college. Now I’m in uni doing a double English and philosophy degree, just back from America. I am also single.
Also important: College is not the only option. Don’t let anyone try to tell you it is. If you’re not academically inclined, the trades are an option and they are a good option– if the only thing you think you’re good at is make-up do that. There are people who can live comfortably just doing make-up. We have this idea planted in our heads as teenagers (and younger) that not fitting into an academic mould of some sort means you’re failing at life and this is bullshit. There’s no reason to feel like you’re “failing at life” because you don’t like school or were never good at it. We need skilled workers in the world, and the thing they don’t tell you is all work is skilled work. If it’s work, it takes skill. Yes, this encompasses “service” jobs, it encompasses all jobs. Please don’t think that what you do, or what you have an interest in doing is of less value than something that requires a college education. This coming from the college-educated white girl who is a seamstress because it’s what I enjoy. If college isn’t going to get you where you want to go, than you don’t need to go! It’s that simple. Take whatever path you need to get to where you are happy and comfortable and fufilled. If you’re doing what you love you are sucessful.
i didn’t graduate with my bachelor’s until i was 26 and life took a few turns along the way but now, at 37, i have a job that makes me genuinely happy. and it’s got nothing to do with how well i did in high school.
This! This make me cry… I’m 23 and I really don’t know where I’m going, so reading this kinds of storys makes me feel hope!
listen i did everything right. i did everything i was told. i got good grades in high school and went to a good college and dated a good boy and graduated with honors and got a good job and bought a good house and a good car.
but dear god, let me tell you. there is no finish line. it just keeps going. you think you’ll feel accomplished but i just ended up working myself to death to hit a brick wall of utter boredom. i broke up with the guy. i got a few promotions but the job was still Just A Job, just a way to make money to pay for the house that i had nothing to do inside of but cook dinner and watch tv.
so yeah, go at whatever pace you want to set for yourself. enjoy every class you take, hang out with your friends, try new things and make mistakes. exercise your creativity. pursue your interests. take. your. time.
I am 30 years old and got my GED less than a year ago. I’m hoping to do some college, but I’m not there yet.
Things might not go the way you planned if you fuck up as a teen, but they’re probably not going to go the way you planned even if you do everything right.
If you’re not ready for college, that’s okay. If you’re 30 and feel like a failure bc you dropped out of high school, it’s not too late.
Don’t let the assumptions of the privileged of our parents’ generation make you think otherwise, because it’s bullshit.
Even if you do go to college, you can change your mind about your life and reinvent. My dad grew up on a farm. He went to Cornell and got a degree in agricultural science. Then he went to UMass and got a masters in agricultural science. Then he worked in ag sci for six months, realized he hated it, and did a correspondence course in electronics. He ended up working as an electronics engineer for 45 years.
Meanwhile my oldest nephew, who dropped out of high school and ran into some legal trouble, needed a long time to figure his life out. He eventually did (and yep, eventually got his GED), found a job he likes, met the love of his life, and now is the happiest he’s ever been. It took him until his 30s but he got there (and I’m so happy for him).
So yup: you can change your mind, you can reinvent yourself, and just because you’ve spent time on one path you can always choose another.
