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Looking back on high school, no wonder I was so damn bad at it and hated it so much. And depressed all the time. And probably picked up SAD that took me a decade beyond it to shake.

I'd quit a job as soon as I could find another, if it demanded of me what high school did. Hell, I'd quit based on the consistent 10+ hour days and constant due-tomorrow deadlines, let alone the rest of it like the before-the-sun's-up start time, having to ask permission to go take a piss, sitting in crappy chairs in bad lighting for back-to-back ~hour blocks all day, and having to keep "working" indefinitely with people who won't stop being shitheads in ways that'd get them fired from most any job inside a week. It's insanely terrible.

Like, there are multiple bad things about it that I've never had to tolerate in such abundance and variety even in low-skilled jobs I've held. WTF.

College and adult life are so much more chill than high school. It was a real shock, leaving there for the wider world. So glad the people who were like "this [shitty thing] is to prepare you for the real world, which is way harder and less forgiving!" or "enjoy it, because this is the best time of your life" were entirely wrong. I'd probably have offed myself by now, if they'd been right. Four years was barely tolerable—a lifetime of that, or worse? No, thanks.



High school's only benefit is a pseudo-forced social climate and not needing to compete for classes like you're buying concert tickets (the number of classes I was waitlisted for despite signing up the day of...).

Everything else is much worse for how I think. I don't get to choose how to time my schedule, the curriculum is mostly fixed (you would always have math/english/history, some language for 3/4 years. You only choose an elective and maybe 1 year of science) and homework tended to stack up constantly because every class was 1 hour M-F. And yea, as you mentioned it's absurd having 1 day due homework spring up when you may or may not be preparing for some other project, or test, or even competition.

You also were much more pressured against taking time to yourself. You can skip a class or take a sick day in "the real world" if you need a break or emergencies come up. those "perfect attendence" rewards were the worst grift of the education system.


Unfortunately for a lot of people work is probably a lot more like high school than we might wish. But, yeah, in college I mostly attended class, some I genuinely enjoyed more than others, spent a lot of time on extracurricular activities/sports which is where I generally formed lifelong friendships (and developed a lot of the skills I use day to day)--and squeaked through. And, as the alumni donations person I've been a friend of for almost 40 years who works for $SCHOOL likes to remind me, I've done well and $SCHOOL taught me a lot in general. And I've had a good career. Luck has played a role.


Glad you found your place. High school wasn’t quite as bad for me but I was constantly sick and battled migraines that stopped as soon as I left. Now I work hard, work long hours, but I’m happy and feel healthy and strong. It’s very different.


I thought that I was the only one to feel this way! Not anymore.




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