Power Pros Forum

yeah they're definitely big enough to fit all my textbooks plus the lenovo thingy atm

Damn it... School starts tomorrow.

And because my school couldn't find a teacher who wanted to be a part time Spanish teacher, I have to take Spanish II online with a class from somewhere else... I don't know where yet, I'll find out on Wednesday.

gettin ready 2 *(censored)* bitches n get $$$

I start college tomorrow. I still don't believe that I graduated from high school

I still have nightmares that I am late on a school project, or that I have to get up and go to class.

real life is sooooo much easier than school. I mean, at least AP classes and boston-area school. Take that, then go to college and you're like "Wow this is kind of easy." Then get out in the real world, work for a few years, and get amazed by how easy success is.

Physics homework? now THATs hard

I've never heard that "real life" is easier than school.

@ Prediction: There was no *(censored)* of the bitches, but I did get a $260 check

I also dropped Art 5th hour and am taking Conservation & Wildlife instead. I'm stoked for this class, it's definitely gonna be a blast. First off, there's only 3 kids in it. Second, it's with the coolest teacher. And she says we're going to make a trap line on the school grounds, "harvest" 3 gophers, and then get to taxidermize them. She already has two field trips planned as well. One is to go to her family's fish farm about 1 1/2 hours away and collect data on trout, and the second is to go to her farm and see the large standing grove of American Chestnut trees in the U.S. She said that her family rents that land to either Yale or Harvard, idr, and they come twice a year to collect data and stuff. Apparently a disease killed like all of the chestnut trees, and because the o'nes on her parent's farm were so far to the west of the chestnut's natural habitat(east coast), they've survived much longer without contracting the disease, although now they are starting to show signs of it. She said that her family can still use the land and everything, the just can't cut down the trees or cut any of the trees within a certain diameter next to the trees. She also said that she plans to take multiple trips down to the Mississippi to just go fishing for a while.

I also have study hall with her 3rd hour now, due to the fact that I have to take Spanish II 8th hour in the Distance Learning Lab with the class from South Shore.

Same. I've heard people say it's nicer cuz of the extra freedom and shit, but I've never heard it be called easier.

its definitely easier (real life), IMO. In the last year or two of high school I had to deal with several AP courses, college prep, SATs, submitting to schools, and basically being pressured to find out an avenue to start down for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. "Pick a major, THAT's IT BUDDY!" That's intense stuff when I was 17. Then there was working and trying to get money to get by in my poor family, doing small shows with my first band, plus girlfriend/girls in general, and friends doing drugs and starting to ruin their lives...I mean, that's a TON of stuff going on. And the AP English teacher wants to know why I didn't spend a month of my summer reading 100 Years of Solitude? I'll drop that class, thank you.

Then college...trying to fight off the freshman 15 (more like freshman 30-40) and keep my credit cards paid when all my time was about CounterStrike and video games and discovering the wonders of file sharing for the first time (it was '99). Then my girlfriend going nuts back home (legitimately crazy, but hey I was 18-22 and in loooove), trying to juggle a web design job and my corner drugstore job back home to pay for school cuz parents WEREN'T DOING THAT, Physics labs and lectures in this new abstract style that made learning/passing impossible (we ended up being graded on a bell curve since the highest score in the class was 63), fighting with profs (I printed an email from my prof that called me out for having a BAD ATTITUDE so I could see it when I woke up every morning), having to deal with drunk/alcoholic roommates, drunk chicks, fights, crushes on your best chick friend (or vice versa)...then switching majors when you find out that people graduating in the one you've been at for semesters are making like $35k a year, if they are lucky. So you switch to CmpSci and get broadsided by some 100 year old tenured prof teaching ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE in a course that maybe 52% of kids pass, while you should be focusing on passing Calc 2 which is way harder than Calc 1, and you keep wondering how the goobers from high school - like D+, barely-graduated kids - are getting MBAs while you flunk out.

Compare that with actually starting an entry-level job (with INSURANCE benefits, PAID TIME OFF, and PAID Holidays - WHAT?!?! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!), where you can work hard, put in hours, prove yourself in 6 or 12 months, and before you know it you're managing people...by 24 you are managing 11 people, all of them older than you...by 25 you are being flown around the country as a systems expert, working alongside lifelong Oracle experts, despite not finishing that degree that is now just a bill every month...by 26 you start making your own terms on job offers, demanding certain benefits or relocation packages, and HOLY CRAP they accept them...by 30 you are managing resources at a Fortune 500, and by 31 people will pay you handsomely to work from home. This was hard?!?!

Yeah, to me life is much easier than school. Your mileage may vary of course. Ive known kids in high school that were incredibly booksmart but just OK in the job world, because they couldn't socialize or express themselves well. Others were complete goobers intellectually but got degrees - seriously, most of the MBAs out there I wouldn't trust to do my laundry right. I was pretty booksmart, very nerdy type, but really just a hard worker when my back was to the wall, or people doubted me as a college dropout, or long-haired musician, or son of white trash parents, or too shy to get far in cutthroat environments...more than anything, being wise, perceptive, and smart have helped me out a ton. If I wanted to, I could coast for the rest of my life and live very comfortably.

My parents would never agree that real life is easier - but they can't really plan, or balance a checkbook, or focus much. I've also had friends that can't really 'make it' easily - can't hold down a steady job, can't seem to make good decisions, get hosed by a car dealership swindling them or some payday loan crap or terrible investment ideas, or just having kids way too early. A lot of people just get messed up by not taking the right opportunity. I don't know what it's like from a minority perspective, or the female perspective, or disabled, or outside the US, or any of that - but I know how easy life is with good opportunities and very good decision making. Of course, I've had help and luck on my side...

Shit

I'm a Junior and I have no clue what to do once I get out of H.S.

Go to college?

Well yeah, but I don't know where I want to go, and what for, and blah blah blah... and my parents keep telling me I need to decide and it's not like I'm not trying to find something I want to do, it's just that I haven't found the one job that I want to do until I'm in my 60's. It's a big decision and I haven't really found an answer for them and I think they're getting annoyed because I always tell them I don't know what I want to do.

I don't think you need the exact job. The job market is fickle, and it's likely you'll move around a few times along the way.

Yeah, but it's not like I have a clue what I want to major in either.

dude there is NO pressure. Like 5% of people are correct in knowing what they want to do at age 17. Being honest about not knowing is pretty powerful in and of itself - I had convinced myself that English was the way to go, journalism or teaching or editing or whatever. If I had stuck to my guns I would have missed a lot of opportunities that led me to success.

A lot of people Ive worked with have changed careers in their 30s or 40s...some even their 50s. A lot of us come out of high school with an idea that's been pushed on us by parents, or friends, or siblings, or society...we don't find ourselves for a while. Sometimes you have to make a decision between financial stability (or being rich) and being happy. Im there now...if I stay where I am, I am decently happy, make plenty...all is good. But if I chased my dreams...maybe I could make them come true, you know?

Just experience a lot, take a range of classes, and you'll see where you gravitate towards. Don't be afraid to follow two paths - I followed two, and somehow found that they intersected in a very unique and lucrative profession.