The positives so far is you are fairly cognizant of the upsides and downsides of continuing with your schooling. I think you might be surrounded by many friends and family who don't have higher education or professional jobs. Thus you feel as if you'll be fine either way since most of your relative peers and family are somewhat happy at this point in their life whether it be they work in food services or construction or some non intellectual task. You should broaden your viewpoint on life. Have you seen the actual lives of successful people whether it be doctor, lawyer, engineer, business owner or programmer, etc.? I think once you get a feel for the really good life you will start demanding more out of yourself. I think the hardest part for a lot of perpetual generational poorer people is they've never seen the truly good life whether it be their friends or family friends. Thus it is hard to visualize themselves ever being in that place. Drive around the River Oaks. See how the other 1% live. You'll be hitting the books with considerable motivation once you see what is truly out there. Don't just live for Rockets and Texans season. Look forward to greater things than that. That being said money isn't everything. If you can find happiness in whatever you do, then do it.
How old are you? Sounds like you are taking a beating physically which is expected. How you gonna travel around the world with no good job?
This world's not for the faint of heart. You have it harder than your parents did, and your kids will have it harder than you do. College is good. College is where you learn to fight. And I don't mean Fight Club fighting like the posters here are referencing. The modern world fights in a different style. If you feel overwhelmed by college, you are either 1.) mentally inferior to your peers, or 2.) carrying on a false perception and actually doing better than your peers; in fact you are probably placing undue pressure on yourself to succeed. The solution in both cases is to take a step back, renew perspective, and figure out what your priorities are going to be going forward. You're young, so just learn that they'll change as you age. If you understand that, then you'll be able to commit yourself more fully to priorities that will carry you for the next couple years at least. I'm 28 and have undergone at least one major change in philosophy in my past decade. Probably I'm due for one more in the next five years to come. The one common denominator has been the will to work hard. It doesn't matter what you choose, only that you choose early and stick with it. As you age, you'll find that time decreases, commitments increase, authority increases, and just the overall accumulation of knowledge and skills will make you more powerful than you would have guessed. But this only happens if you are diligent and find fulfillment in what you do. A ton of posters on Clutchfans will tell you that college was the best time of their lives, and that it's only downhill from there. The reason for that is because, like the narrator in the Emerson poem Days, they never figured out what to do with their time and instead just threw it away like so much dust.
Way too early to give up. Worse come to worst, go to community college next semester. It'll be easier and cheaper while you get your post high school sea legs. You really just have to find your groove. A monkey could get a degree, trust me.
A lot of people say that. I wish it was so for me. I loved high school and I'm loving life now. College was pretty meh for me.
College sucks so far. More responsibility without an equivalent proportional amount of freedom. Opportunity sure, but no structure. Everything is so spontaneous. I feel like I got picked up and dropped in the middle of nowhere without any settling in period. Doesn't help that advisers are so pushy when it terms to helping you choose a major path.
College was not the best time of my life. The day it was over, I was thrilled. But I don't regret it, because it opened up so many opportunities. Again, don't let other people's expectations affect your own.
Agree with some of the previous posters, if your school load is to high, try and drop a class. Depending on your current school, you can probably get credit for a lot of gen ed classes at community college summer school.
If you are defining yourself ONLY as a "college graduate" in waiting, then itll probably weigh down on you more. It'll make it seem like if you spend 30 minutes too much playing a video game, then you'll feel bad for it detracting away from your studies and that failure is imminent Would advise to vary the interests up. Dont feel bad wanting to do amusing things. If you even have to take a semester off to decompress and explore, then do it. But no more Would still advise to NOT drop out. The ANXIETY can be heavy at first. But you can adapt to it. And yes don't let your parents drive you crazy. They probably just want to be assured you wont quit and drop out. If you show confidence and say "I'm good", it'll help put them at ease too. AKA: Dont less ignorant PROLES influence you with low class ways. Get in with the upper class to sense the "finer" ways of being..... He does have a point. Being around good students and successful people, they can provide a good framework. The ways they focus and prioritize, can pick up on that. And non-ambitious people who accept less might not understand the stakes youre going for. After all, you are there to complete the coursework might as well do it best way it can be done. Though successful people can be very competitive, and it can be a turnoff. Just know its GOOD competition and the way of the world. I think what matters is to have SUPPORTIVE people, not just do-gooders. Ones that can relate to your experience, yeah more than likely its honor roll students instead of gang bangers (I dropped out of college. NOT worth it. But I didnt know what I wanted to do, hard to know if the "light switch" woulda ever come on then without intervention. And i'll never know if I was "college material" enough. But I think I overanalyzed it too much and shoulda just been a student/slave to the curriculum til the finish lol )
Not sure why you think less freedom. There is way more freedom. I loved the lack of structure, it opened me up to a lot of new things. I never had pushy advisors and was always able to do my own thing, schedule classes when I wanted, find my own major. In comparison, I always thought high school was so lame compared to college, I feel like high school was the biggest waste of time in my life. But I guess everyone has different experiences
OP, what is it that you're studying to major? Something in the BS or BA? If it's BS, then what was it that drove you to make that decision? My college experience was muddling around 3 majors not being able to decide what to do with my life. My dad didn't think graduating with a BA didn't amount to **** so I stuck through it and got a BS in Environmental Science. Didn't do much with it, but I learned a helluva lot of things that broadened my knowledge. And you know what, having it did prove something. My GPA might be ****, but not many on the whole could not get a stupid degree like that. Tell us your goals and dreams man. Everyone here is different so they have different priorities that might not make any sense. I also had your dream of traveling around the world at your age, but also knew that I didn't have the money to do it. So I sucked it up and planned some way to achieve it. It took me awhile but I'm in a position to do it more often than other people. Nothing worth anything is easy to get. Struggling builds character, but you need passion and an outlet for your inner voice to achieve a future you want. If you can't answer that then that feeling of powerlessness will linger despite trudging on, and letting that linger long enough will cause depression or some form of self destruction. Millennial whining is fine, but remember that you're not entitled to any God damn thing. If you want it, work for it. No one is going to force you, so you may very well sink if you think you're too good to work hard. It's the easy way out, but only until much later do you realize what a ****ing waste of time it was pouting, moaning and rebelling against your expectations. So if you're going to quit college, don't do it because you're running away from it. Only do it if you're running to something else. Simple advice towards being a successful adult.
If you need to drop a class, do it. Less stress in the present and for the future if it is affecting your GPA. If you are put in the part-time student category, I know most schools (i.e UT), the fin aid department allows you to continue to receive aid if you meet a certain threshold at the end of the year.
And this is why my advisers suck. They made it seem like taking less than 12 hours would be the death of our college careers.
This. It sounds like you enjoy the class that is in your major, so it's not that you're not "cut out for college." Dropping a class may work, but also taking classes you have an interest in instead of just trying to get credits and prereqs out of the way may help too. You're putting a lot of pressure on yourself, when college isn't merely about the GPA and the degree, it's about the experience itself. You may need to take a step back and just take it all in and enjoy where you are. Also, there's no shame in going to go see a shrink at your school's health center. A lot of freshmen I remember had a hard time adjusting, and they took it to extremes (some stayed in all day and gamed, some went out and partied like nobody's business). Once you find what works for you, then it'll get easier to prioritize and not feel inundated. Good luck man, college was a miserable time for me and I also graduated with a **** GPA, but in hindsight, it definitely helped me get to a better place and was a helluva learning experience I wouldn't trade.
