I feel the same way right now in college (paid for by parents), but that's not stopping me from improving myself or becoming successful. I can't stay in the slowlane. My eyes are wide open.

Nobody is stopping you from learning. After school you can come here, youtube, read a book, etc.

My only advice would be to get a job asap and start parking some money away to invest in yourself, and do not take on any debt, it's unnecessary. (wish I could go back 3 years and tell myself this...)

 

At 16, I was in High School. I was a recluse in high school/ Kept to myself most of the time. People knew me and I knew them but I didn't really talk much. Never really cared. I've always been a natural introvert.

I was part of my High School's JROTC Program. I took all AP Classes. I had tons of fun at my school's Video Production classes. I played in my High School's Orchestra which we played at Walt Disney World in Orlando every year. I was part of my city's youth orchestra. I was also very involved with my church's youth group.

Even though I took AP classes I didn't have the best grades. Which my dad beat the living sh*t out of me for. He was teaching me to drive and whenever I made a mistake he would start punching me in the arm. When it came to classes and grades I just never really cared for it.

I would always read at the library after the school day was done with.

After my dad would come home from work he would just watch TV all day then me and my brother would just do yardwork all day long especially after a thunderstorm.

I also played Warcraft till 2am.

Overall my 16th year was a good time.

 

Many countries force a scripted education up to the age of 18, so sometimes there isn't much you can do about school. When I was 16, I moved to a different country as part of a school exchange program. It was probably the best decision I have ever taken in my life, because I learned a lot of things about myself.

I recommend this to everyone at that age now, even if you only decide to stay abroad for a year. I initially intended to stay 6 months but ended up 9 years total in 4 cities in 2 countries. The amount of skills that are forced to be learnt will benefit almost all aspects of life and business.

 

I quit school at your age and turned out fine, granted this was after almost a decade of brutal failures (including an addiction and 2 arrests) and financial struggles (lived on my friend's couch and went days without eating at times). I'd say that it depends on what you want to become. I don't want to knock school because if you want to become a lawyer or a surgeon, yes stay in school and do your best. But if you can truly afford to struggle for a while and are willing to hustle and fail and keep going, like I said, I quit and turned out fine. Was not easy though.

 

My experience at 16 years old?

Hmmm, it was a very busy year for me! One of my best!

- First took up Science subjects stream. Biology, Chemistry, Add Maths, Physics. Had a teacher from university for Buology and Chemistry, but she couldn't 'dumb' the concepts down for us high schoolers

- Ended up screwing my grades on Science subjects, but I learned on my own to work my way up to some As and Bs.

- Had to take Bible Knowledge as a compulsory subject by my school (being of a mission school heritage). Most kids would dump the subject and fail it.

But I worked f*cking hard to learn Acts and Luke as word for word as I could, and scores top grades for it. I was already a Christian, but it was still difficult to sharpen the lingual details in the texts.

- Was secretary for my Boys Brigade uniform unit. Did my senior years, oversaw some drill camps and band

- My school had a 'Sound of Music' production, which called in everyone in the school to work on it. I did some video promo and musical performance.

- Decided to get more serious with my girl, whom I met 3 years back. We had the best of times together. I relearned my piano and picked up baking for her.

Well, that's the highlights of my 16-year-old time.

Sometime you don't need to do entrepreneurship back in high school. You can just go to clubs and societies, and start learning skills and meeting more productive people.

You won't lose time being active in useful school clubs as long as you learn new things and provide value along the way.

As for academics, I understand that the syllabus can suck sometimes. But I would like to think of high school education as an 'appetiser', and then you go and 'learn the main course' by getting your own focused experiences and specialised materials.

 

At 16, if you are having anxiety that you are wasting your time, It is not school which will hurt your progress, it is this anxiety. At 16 the only thing you really have is time. And you HAVE to make use of it. Are you in school 24 hours? What are you doing in the hours that you are not in school? If you are playing games or watching netflix and THEN having anxiety on the hours spent in school you are only fooling yourself.

But I am assuming here, maybe you are spending every minute out of school in learning or contributing. In which case, my advice would be to stay in school, grab every opportunity you can get, like someone mentioned going to another city / country, or get a part time job. The internet is overflowing with places where you can learn from, keep learning, work hard and be patient. Patience really is the key. And All the best...