So yeah.

Right, I haven’t had a real life story to post in a while. But it’s not really a story, more of a rant, but hey, it’s cool.

I’m a real fly-by-the-minute guy. I never have plans. I don’t like plans. I don’t like to organize. I don’t like to work. I like to live. I like to do things on the spot. I like to be energetic. I like to be lazy.

These are all very simple, and some people just don’t quite get it.

So I’m failing Home Economics. That’s right - Home Economics. What did we learn in class today? That firemen wear fire protective clothes. No joke, we learned that doctors wear germ resistent clothes - and we learned why too. Firemen work in the heat of hell so they need fire protection. Doctors are opening us up and need to protect us and themselves from germs. What else have I learned? What a refrigerator is. What a wisk is. What a spatula is.

Seriously. A [b]spatula[/b].

So I’m failing Home Economics. Honestly, I find it difficult to concentrate in a class where I’m learning about how a microwave works. I really wish I could make this shit up, then I’d be really funny. But for now, I’ll just have to settle for being kind of funny and tell the truth. So I’m failing, right, and my teacher asks me why I’m failing. I told her I didn’t need her class to graduate, I’m perfectly happy with being a bum, and that my goals in life involved making a living and living in an apartment.

So, of course I get the college question.

I’m a real realistic person. I recognize the fact that I can’t do college. College isn’t in the cards for me because I don’t feel like wasting $10,000 to go get trashed over and over again when I could save $10,000 and get trashed over and over again. That’s what’ll happen when I go to college - I’ll spend all my grant money on booze and drugs, never study, fail out, come back and find myself sniffing white lines. Sure, it doesn’t sound too pretty, but I can assure you that’s what’ll happen. I don’t want that to happen, so I won’t let it. But people just don’t get it. I can’t even explain it to my mom, but life is all about the ever important GPA - that damnable grade point average. Well, I told my mom that the GPA can kiss my dick (that was a mistake) and she opens up on me about how I was ruining my life and so on and so on and so on. I told her plain and straight that I dont want to go to college, and it’s very simple why.

I want to live. I want to experience life. I can’t experience life if I need to do home work, if I need to read chapters 3,4 and 5 by tomorrow afternoon. I can’t live if I have to work my fun around my work. Sure, I know that’s how life is, but I don’t want to live life, I just want to live in general. I want to hang out with friends. I want to chill in parking lots and sip on 40s and smoke blunts. I want to stay out all night and fuck random women that I may or may not ever see again. I want to watch Law and Order Reruns. I wanna sky dive. I wanna bungee jump.

Surely you see where I’m going. Is it so wrong to be so careless? I’m not even lost. I know exactly what I want to do, which is nothing. So why do people constantly try to convince me that I’m doing nothing? They’re wrong. I’m doing everything. And I’m doing it one day at a time. Why can’t people understand this?

It sounds like you’re experiencing that phenomenon of young adults just wanting to go out into the world with no cares for about a year. Like those people who backpack through Europe before going to college.

And if you want to do all that stuff, fine. God help you do it. If it would make you happy and you’re willing to accept the consequence of your actions, the more power to you. However, to do some of these things you want, you’ll either have to be a big bum or get a job, neither of which are truly splendid choices. But maybe you should take a year off when you graduate. Join the Peace Corp or something. Travel across America like Maz (someone you REALLY need to talk to about those feelings).

As for your college situation, I’m presuming you don’t quite meet HOPE standards given your comment on grants.

No, I don’t quite meet the HOPE standard. I’m like, 5 or 6 points off in my senior year. But yeah, me and Maz had a conversation about life when we met in Boston. I intend to get a job, it’s pretty pricey to be a bum without a job. But not a real job, something lame like working at arbys.

What is HOPE?

Why don’t you try a tech school or an apprenticeship? I’m sure you could fine something hands on that you like. There’s nothing wrong with that. Then again none of this is my place to judge.

Well, I’m gonna sound like kind of a parent, and I’m really fucking sorry about this :open_mouth: Cos the truth is I understand your point, I really do :stuck_out_tongue:

But ALL I’m saying is, you should really look to the people that care for you (If you care for them back :/) and try to address and mitigage their worries. For a parent who wants you to succeed (which like almost all of them do), it’s hard for them to accept what you want to do. I’m not saying you’ve never seen it from their perspective before; maybe you have, maybe you haven’t. But the important part is not just seeing it through their eyes, but it’s taking that knowledge and acting on it. You don’t have to necesarily give up your desires (In fact I’d tell you not to), but I’m sure as you know, when someone loves you, they put their faith in you not to make them worry all to hell about you, and if you address the situation with apathy towards their feelings, you’re only gonna make it harder for them. So try and talk to the people that you share these mutual feelings with and help them through it. But, don’t back down anymore than you want to back down; even if you don’t want to back down at all, that’s not bad. It’s your fucking life, and the line does have to be drawn somewhere. Just be reasonable; that’s the best advice I can give you.

You do whatever you want to do. Its your life, not your moms, not your teachers it YOURS. Im 19 out of high school, and I do want to go to college. I just dont want to be pressured into it. I want to do it when I want too. Not right now. I want to do the same you want to do. Just fucking live. Just live.

HOPE is this kickass scholarship for students that attend high schools in Georgia. See, a few years back when people wanted to bring the lottery to Georgia, former Governor Zell Miller was all like “'Kay, but it best be paying for some education.” So they worked out this plan that originally diverted some lottery profits to a need based scholarship to attend Georgia colleges. So, it is paid for COMPLETELY by the lottery. Well, the lottery got bigger, so it got more money. The program was altered a couple of times until it ended up in its present state.

As it stands now, a Georgia high school graduate, public or private or even home schooled, can get the tuition completely paid for for ANY Georgia public university. It also gives matching funds of about $4000 if you attend a Georgia private college. It also gives like a couple hundred more for books and fees, but the tuition is the main part. All you have to do is have a 3.0 GPA when graduating from high school and maintain that average throughout college.

It has led to some grade inflation in Georgia public high schools, but it has also had the effect of keeping GA’s best and brightest in Georgia (I know it did with me). It has been having some financial problems, so there are some plans afoot to cut it back some. These include linking HOPE to SAT and ACT, raising the GPA requirement to like 3.2, cutting back on its payments for books and such (which has actually just artificially raised the prices of books), and possibly making it dependent on family income. Of the modifications, I prefer the first three as I feel it should be a reward for hard work in school no matter what the person’s class.

Wow, thats a really good program.

As long as you’re doing what you enjoy, and that keeps you happy, then there shouldn’t be any problems. You just have to overcome the so-called boss monsters that you encounter along the way, which might be issues like having a place to live and having money to support yourself. But you seem to know what you want, and how to obtain it, so yeah. Those other people are just worried that you’re gonna end up facing a big pile of regret when you get older, and you just may, but that’s living in the future, right? The present is much more enjoyable. And if it isn’t, change.

That’s your perception and your choices.

hahaha.

Anyways, I kinda know where you’re coming from. You want to experience life now because really, you’re going to grow old, fat, and not be able to enjoy life like you can now ever again.

At least you know what you want to do with your life. I’m in college and I don’t have a fucking clue. I’m not going to ask any questions except this one: Why the fuck did you take Home-Ec?

A social program in the States, someone tell me why no one has tried to shut it down yet, please. I want to know.

FL has something like HOPE. I think it’s called Bright Futures or something.

My two gp about college and life, even though I really haven’t experienced to its fullest.

I’ve known a couple of gutter punks throughout my life. (For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s a hybrid punk -hippie). They were all really cool and what not , but the truth of the matter is that they really didn’t have many aspirations about their life and a great deal of them regretted what they had done. I personally don’t know how far I am going to go with a degree in journalism. However, by going to college and doing well I hope to gain a decent job at a newspaper or magazine. I know journalism doesn’t always pay that much, but I do enjoy writing a great deal. Now you could say what you want to do is nothing at all, but I believe that from some of your arguments and posts, you seem to have an academic learning knack. I think that you could have a good time in college if you found a major that you enjoyed. I know it can be tempting to just get wasted all the time, but if you just keep it until after you have done all your work then no harm done.

That’s all I have to say.

While I agree with Americin, I think Sorc needs to get rid of his wanderlust (God I can’t believe I remember that) before he moves forward. I have a friend that was in the place he’s in now and he just needs to experience life and a few things should click eventually. By experience life, of course I mean real life, not get high and drunk with his buddies while mooching off mama at home. High school’s idiocy is not a good evaluator of academia.

If men could stop trying to “out-macho” each other, and run away from things they consider “unmanly”, they would realize that you can actually learn very important life skills in Home-Ec (although, as Sorc demonstrated, some Home-Ec lessons are more important than others…). I pity the man who doesn’t know how to cook for himself. You can learn other life skills in Home-Ec, like sewing and shit like that, stuff that can really come in handy some day. And there’s nothing wrong with a man who knows how to sew and knit! And your future wife will love you for it. :kissy:

Anyway, college isn’t for everybody, honestly. A lot of students just go to college because they figure it’s the “next step”, without really wanting to, and they end up going for a year or two, wasting a shitload of money, and dropping out. At least you have the forsight to see that you may fall into that category. Besides, if you ever change your mind down the road, college (or tech school or whatever) is always still an option.

Just don’t party so much that you lose focus in life and end up permanently stoned and apathetic; stuck in a job at Burger King and living with your parents for the rest of your forseeable future like my friend is…-_-

And…erm… Just don’t impregnate any of the random women that you fuck and never see again, kay?

Some people are still mad at it in Georgia because it promotes the lottery, which they consider evil and a tax on the poor and whatnot. Aside from that, no one dislikes it. Even hardcore Libertarians have no problem with the program because it deals with voluntary money going in rather than mandatory taxes.

I was just about to ask why you supported it, 984- but you just answered my question. Oh ho ho ho!