… and I’m not gonna drink the Kool-Aid. Can you help me get through the next two years of high school?

Our elder can empathize — he dropped out of college and regretted it for the rest of his life. Get the diploma, he says.

Dear EWC

So recently it has been getting more and more difficult to go to school. It feels like a waste of time and the more that I go to school and learn about school the more I realize it is a waste of time. I am so bored in all my classes and everyone around me is depressed. And partly because of school. Everyone wants me to conform and ‘drink the Kool-Aid’ and just go along with the school system. But it is so messed up. And I would do something to change the school system, but right now I am trying to find the will to eat food so I cannot really see myself trying to change something when I can’t even fix myself. Anyways, I know my parents will force me to go to school tomorrow but I really do not want to go. I hate going there. I like to talk but I never get to talk. So instead I squirm in my chair wanting to speak only for the teacher to never call on me because I talk too much. I can most of the time answer half to most of their questions, and yet I am not allowed to because other people need to answer. But I hate answering. I like to ask questions more. But I’m not allowed to speak. Anyways, are there any tips to how to power through two more years of high school? Because I want to drop out and stop right now, and even though my brain is logical and says that’s a bad idea, my body tells me to hide and run away from it all.

Bill replies

I’m glad you’ve reached out to us here at EWC. I hope these thoughts will be helpful.

Let me tell you a story. When I was 19 I was a sophomore at the University of Florida. I hated my classes. Anything and everything I did at Gainesville outside of classes was better and more fun than any of my classes.

I had no interest in my subjects. I knew I could make a great living as a salesman and didn’t need a degree. So I quit college. Never went back.

Now I’m almost 82. I don’t think I’ve ever lived through a single day that I didn’t think about my regret at being without a degree, about the many opportunities I’ve missed out on, because I’m not educationally qualified.

No matter how much you dislike life in the classroom, you must, absolutely must get that high school diploma. Without it you’ll be so far behind everyone else that your life will be worse than those classroom problems. It will affect what friends you’ll have, what marriage prospects you’ll have, what jobs you’ll have a shot at.

Be wise. Get the diploma. Then do whatever you want!

Best of luck.

Letter #: 447816
Category: School