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How was your high school experience

Anything related to matters of the mind

Jonathan S.Diaz

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Hello, Fastlane Forum, and happy new year!

I'm a high school student, about to enter senior year in a bit. I wanted to make this post because I have been battling high school for a while now. All I have wanted to do during this time was just drop out or find alternatives to it because dropping out doesn't look good on your portfolio :D
I'm currently living in central Florida and have been attending a bad high school (i.e, there is no learning, little to no opportunities or advanced programs, bad social circle & networking opportunities, a lot of time wasted), I have looked into 'alternative education' but found that there aren't many opportunities there for many factors like money and location. It is highly ordinary, wastes precious resources (mainly mental energy and time) and it's driving me absolutely mad.

Enough of that rant, I wanted to hear from the rest of you about how your high school experience was.
Did you feel completely different from others like I do? Were you constantly getting in trouble? etc.

John S.

PS, Any additional insights are highly appreciated
 
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Lucas Lee-Tyson

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Definitely do not drop out of high school. I didn't love high school but definitely didn't hate it either. Realize how many opportunities the Internet gives you and focus your time and energy on that, rather than however you may feel about your current situation.
 

loop101

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If you work for other people, you will want to get as much education you can, because your jobs and salary will mostly be dependent on your education. If you are self-employed, you can do what you want. I would say to finish HS, because if you don't, every potential employer will think it was because you couldn't. I don't know the actual numbers, but I imagine the payscales are something like, no H.S make $30k, H.S. graduate make $60k, 2 yr college make $75k, 4 yr college make $90k, Masters make $115k, PHd make $145k, or something like that. If you are self-employed, you will make somewhere between 0 and $80B.
 
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LuckyPup

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Hello, Fastlane Forum, and happy new year!

I'm a high school student, about to enter senior year in a bit. I wanted to make this post because I have been battling high school for a while now. All I have wanted to do during this time was just drop out or find alternatives to it because dropping out doesn't look good on your portfolio :D
I'm currently living in central Florida and have been attending a bad high school (i.e, there is no learning, little to no opportunities or advanced programs, bad social circle & networking opportunities, a lot of time wasted), I have looked into 'alternative education' but found that there aren't many opportunities there for many factors like money and location. It is highly ordinary, wastes precious resources (mainly mental energy and time) and it's driving me absolutely mad.

Enough of that rant, I wanted to hear from the rest of you about how your high school experience was.
Did you feel completely different from others like I do? Were you constantly getting in trouble? etc.

John S.

PS, Any additional insights are highly appreciated

I think you're asking the wrong question. It doesn't matter what anyone else's high school experience was, so don't waste your energy soliciting information about something that isn't relevant to your goals, and probably not relevant to us or our goals, either. For many of us, high school is a very distant memory.

There's a saying: "Wherever you go, there YOU are." The point is that you can be in a crappy environment or a great one, but ultimately it's up to you to do the best with what you have, whatever that may be. There are people with zero advantages in life, who rise to do great things. There are also people with every advantage in life, who are a total waste of space.

There's another saying: "What you focus on grows." If you continue to focus on what's lacking in your environment, those deficiencies will only seem larger in your mind. And while you're focusing on your problems, real or imagined, you're missing great opportunities to focus on what you CAN do with what IS available to you.

High school is a means to an end. Stop worrying about what it isn't and just get the job done - graduate. I don't know if you're thinking about dropping out, but I assure you that you will regret it if you do, if, for no other reason than it sets a precedent of failure. If you truly feel that you're in the wrong place, then you need to look harder to find an alternative. Do the work, solve the problem and forget ranting about something that isn't a real problem to people who don't know you.

Don't mean this to be harsh, but you're focusing on the wrong things. As a teenager you have luxuries most adults don't - time and very few responsibilities - so take advantage of them. Use this time to get your head right, direct your own education and design the life you want to live. Get after it.
 
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AFMKelvin

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I don't know the actual numbers, but I imagine the payscales are something like, no H.S make $30k, H.S. graduate make $60k, 2 yr college make $75k, 4 yr college make $90k, Masters make $115k, PHd make $145k, or something like that.

You still believe this propaganda?
 

Primeperiwinkle

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Do every single thing I’m about to outline and you’ll be better than most college graduates. Even if you only do it for one year. Most of these books are in your library or online at librivox or Gutenberg for free.

Try really hard to read them. All of them. After EVERY chapter, write a summary of what you just read. This is called narration. Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin were masters at it. Bonus points if you start using the same type of sentence structure and vocabulary as the author. Make a comprehensive timeline. Put the real life stuff on it AND the authors names of the books at their corresponding year so you know exactly why Austen writing a book like Pride and Prejudice was so ridiculously brave.

Keep a commonplace journal. This will be filled with only the quotes you like the most from whatever books you happened to have read that day. Yes you can read multiple books in a day, just like you can watch two tv shows in a day and not get them confused.

Break up your study time by category. Do a little history, a little poetry, a little bit of a novel, and a little bit of biography. Don’t EVER try to read all of one book all the way through and NEVER read anything without some type of narration. It’s pointless. If you can’t replicate what you learned you didn’t learn it.

Your goal isn’t to enjoy all of this but to stretch your brain so that someday you can enjoy great things. You’re developing your brains tastebuds. Go outside everyday. Discover nature. Really. Pretend you’re Darwin and notebook/sketch the heck out of your backyard. Listen to classical music by one composer each month so that in a year you’ll be able to tell the difference between Mendelssohn and Hildegard Von Bingen and why they aren’t both classical at all. Lastly, read through the entire Bible at least once. 2,000 years of art, history, and well.. a ton of stuff is based on this one book. You should at the very least be familiar with it.

History is vital. Everything is anchored by that. Here are the books.

Minds More Awake by Anne White
Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography
A History of the English Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill - all four volumes.
A Child’s History of the World by Hillyer
The Story of the World by Bauer - all four volumes.

Beowulf - Seamus Heaney translation
Don Quixote - Edith Grossman translation
The Iliad - Fagles translation
The Odyssey - Fagles translation

The Oxford Book of English Verse
Plutarch’s Lives
Shakespeare

Reading Challenge: 100 Classics to Read in a Lifetime

I promise you that if you only get through HALF of these books AND narrate them you will have a much, much better education than most ppl can imagine.

Good luck little dude.
 

garyfritz

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You still believe this propaganda?
You may not like it, but that doesn't make it propaganda. The BLS has done the research and put hard numbers on it:
ep_chart_001.png

Unemployment rates and earnings by educational attainment

So a HS dropout makes about $27k, HS grad $37k, BS $61k, MS $73k, PhD $91k. I think those numbers are low but they show a clear trend. Unemployment rates are also sobering for lower-educated workers.

Now if you're self-employed and building your own business, you don't care about this. It's irrelevant to you. But not everybody ends up successfully creating a business. At a minimum I would say a HS diploma is a very good insurance policy / fallback plan.
 
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loop101

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Do every single thing I’m about to outline and you’ll be better than most college graduates. Even if you only do it for one year. Most of these books are in your library or online at librivox or Gutenberg for free.

Try really hard to read them. All of them. After EVERY chapter, write a summary of what you just read. This is called narration. Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin were masters at it. Bonus points if you start using the same type of sentence structure and vocabulary as the author. Make a comprehensive timeline. Put the real life stuff on it AND the authors names of the books at their corresponding year so you know exactly why Austen writing a book like Pride and Prejudice was so ridiculously brave.

Keep a commonplace journal. This will be filled with only the quotes you like the most from whatever books you happened to have read that day. Yes you can read multiple books in a day, just like you can watch two tv shows in a day and not get them confused.

Break up your study time by category. Do a little history, a little poetry, a little bit of a novel, and a little bit of biography. Don’t EVER try to read all of one book all the way through and NEVER read anything without some type of narration. It’s pointless. If you can’t replicate what you learned you didn’t learn it.

Your goal isn’t to enjoy all of this but to stretch your brain so that someday you can enjoy great things. You’re developing your brains tastebuds. Go outside everyday. Discover nature. Really. Pretend you’re Darwin and notebook/sketch the heck out of your backyard. Listen to classical music by one composer each month so that in a year you’ll be able to tell the difference between Mendelssohn and Hildegard Von Bingen and why they aren’t both classical at all. Lastly, read through the entire Bible at least once. 2,000 years of art, history, and well.. a ton of stuff is based on this one book. You should at the very least be familiar with it.

History is vital. Everything is anchored by that. Here are the books.

Minds More Awake by Anne White
Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography
A History of the English Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill - all four volumes.
A Child’s History of the World by Hillyer
The Story of the World by Bauer - all four volumes.

Beowulf - Seamus Heaney translation
Don Quixote - Edith Grossman translation
The Iliad - Fagles translation
The Odyssey - Fagles translation

The Oxford Book of English Verse
Plutarch’s Lives
Shakespeare

Reading Challenge: 100 Classics to Read in a Lifetime

I promise you that if you only get through HALF of these books AND narrate them you will have a much, much better education than most ppl can imagine.

Good luck little dude.

Or he could just read MJ's book.
 

Primeperiwinkle

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Or he could just read MJ's book.

Without a solid connection to the world (history, beauty, art.. other people) I sincerely doubt MJ’s book would help anyone. Most of the ppl who read it and become successful already have significant attachments and some clear idea of their identity or at the very least an idea of how to get those. MJ espouses adding value to the world. If a person has no regard for the world.. no connections to anything.. where or what will they draw on for their motivation to love it enough to help anyone?

My extremely long post was based on the thought “what if this kid has NOTHING and NO ONE to show him love or beauty or truth?” He can still catch it.. if he’s introduced to great minds. I do not think reading any one book, even as great as MJ’s, constitutes an education.
 
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Rabby

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I also went to highschool in Florida. It wasn't terrible, but for the amount of time we spend in school, I'm amazed at how little of substance there really was. The problem is that in school, you don't apply your knowledge to real problems. So it becomes an exercise in memorizing facts and exercises for most people.

Example: I got a better grasp of geometry and physics and programming by making a computer game than in all the classes I ever took on those subjects.

Maybe the takeaway is that whatever you do with school is what you do... but try to have real projects that do something of value. You'll probably get more out of those projects than you will from sitting in class or studying for standardized tests.

Maybe a teacher at your school will be able to point you in the right direction on some project you're building. Some of the teachers are bound to know something "useful," but it's the application of the knowledge that makes it actually manifest as useful.
 

Rabby

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Also, I would say whatever you do, read a lot. Make a lot and do a lot, yes, but reading can break you out of all kinds of mental dead ends.
 

Rabby

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PS: Yes, I felt completely different from other students. I wasn't motivated to talk to most of them, and preferred talking to older people.
 
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superb

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Don't drop out of school. I barely made it through only because of my test scores, doing as little homework as possible. The learning part was too easy. Despite this, the one thing high school could have taught me was discipline, and I struggled with it for years to come.

I didn't want to do things that I didn't like or found boring. Yes very little of what I learned has been useful to me as an adult. But if I showed up to every class, did all of my homework and worked to be an A student, I would have graduated with some measure of discipline and a much stronger work ethic.
 

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