I want to leave school!

LegacyUser

I'm in 6th year at the moment, a 17 year old male. I'm not gonna say where i'm from but it's in the south!

Since 5th year it's dawned on me that I'm not made for school. Most of the other 6th year students are all higher grade/better than average. I wouldn't care as much, but 98% of them are pretentious, cocky feckers who are all aiming for chemistry or biology degrees. Even the teachers are the same - my business teacher recently bashed social welfare payments and medical cards in front of our whole class!

I'm an average grade student, with interests in music, design and IT. I grew up with a different view on education - I'm the second person in my family to reach 6th year! My family aren't "stupid" either, most of them have great jobs which pay fairly well. I just want to end it all here, and go onto a working life but I'd be disappointing everyone I know.

I'm just so confused about all of this. I won't mind college but the thought of another few months with unbearable pressure put onto me is daunting.

alantc

Desperate! wrote: »

I just want to end it all here, and go onto a working life but I'd be disappointing everyone I know.

I'm just so confused about all of this. I won't mind college but the thought of another few months with unbearable pressure put onto me is daunting.

Don't worry about disappointing everyone, it's your own choice if you want to ruin your life. In ten years, maybe sooner, you'll experience a type of regret I'll never get to feel.


Stay in school, don't do drugs.

extrinzic

Desperate! wrote: »

I just want to end it all here, and go onto a working life but I'd be disappointing everyone I know.

I'm just so confused about all of this. I won't mind college but the thought of another few months with unbearable pressure put onto me is daunting.

Working life ain't all it's cracked up to be most the time. Sounds to me like excuses for struggling in school. If you are, I understand. I am dyslexic myself, and school was no joke. I suggest you stick with it, and do your best. Have a look at mind maps as a study aid. There is a great book with exercises in it, unceremoniously called, The Mind Map Book. Trust me, this stuff is the buisness for people with an over developed visual capacity (ie. Photographic memory).

*giggles*

In this day and age, you will not be able to get even a part time job without your Leaving Cert. If, after the exams, you still feel the same way, it's time to assess what is going on. To get anywhere in this life, a degree is paramount. I'm not liking Leaving Cert at the moment, but I know once it's done, it's done. I'll be so happy when it's over and I'm (hopefully) in college.

Scrambled egg

Seriously mate, im in 6th year too. Its crap but the LC is only about 6 or 7 months away, go in , give it socs and your done. Your almost there!

LegacyUser

Thanks guys, I like the mindmap idea! Blunt answers, but that's what I wanted.


(to mods, you now know who I am so please keep it secret;))

Lollipops23

Don't stress over your grades, all that matters is that you reach your own potential, whatever that may be.

Now,at the risk of sounding like a real grown-up (which I'm not:o) all you need to do is brazen it out for the next 6 months. Then you'll have your LC FOREVER!Seriously,if you can just do what you can, get it over with. I can't tell you how many of my friends have said that their lives didn't begin til college.

Whether you get 200 points or 500, it's what you're capable of that matters.

Kensington

You've spent 13/14 years at school - why throw it all away at the last stretch? You might aswell sit it. And let's face it - there's very highly qualified people out there with all sorts of degrees and qualifications to their name who can't get a job of any description, what chance do you stand with not even a leaving cert behind you?

Just hang in there, it really cuts off a lot of your options if you drop out.

Vain

Don't do it, im finished my leaving cert 3 years ago and the guys in my class that left in 3rd year are now saying it was the biggest mistake they made and now they want to go back and do the leaving cert, I know 6th year is a pain in the ###, screw what the other people in your class are aiming for, just do your own thing but i honestly think doing the leaving would be best. Even if you don't do as good as you may like at least you still have a leaving cert and go on to collage or what ever else you may like.

LegacyUser

I got very mediocre grades in school, most of the other pupils were arsehole snotty rich kids (I was sent to a fee paying school), really sh!t teachers with major emphasis on rugby and not much else.

It was the year of the teachers' strikes, and on top of regularly missing 3 days a week of school, I was suspended twice (don't go there), hated every minuted of the fkin place and could not wait to leave.

I didn't want to go to college either as I thought it would be just like school but I was wrong. Someone once said to me "even if you only stay a year, the college experience is one worth having".

My advise to you is to go to a college far far away and study something you love and start over with fresh friends and a fresh life. College is a fresh start for everyone and you will make some of the best friends of your life there.

Perhaps you feel you are not acdemically inclined. Well if you are, fair enough but I thought I was and guess what. I now have a masters degree in mechanical engineering. And where are they now? Nowhere. So fk the begrugers in school. Don't let them get you down. Stick it out dude, it's worth it. Don't find yourself in a position 10 years from now being bossed around by an idiot who happens to be college qwualified because he's good at learning stuff off for exams. Don't be the smart guy stuck in the taxi or on the door of a night club having people you are better than looking down their noses at you.

dotsflan

<snip>

sorry

Overheal

extrinzic wrote: »

Working life ain't all it's cracked up to be most the time. Sounds to me like excuses for struggling in school. If you are, I understand. I am dyslexic myself, and school was no joke. I suggest you stick with it, and do your best. Have a look at mind maps as a study aid. There is a great book with exercises in it, unceremoniously called, The Mind Map Book. Trust me, this stuff is the buisness for people with an over developed visual capacity (ie. Photographic memory).

Is it anything like this scrap i diddied up 6 months ago?

http://overheal1987.deviantart.com/art/Sketch-Quest-118155015

Cathartic, if nothing else.

Desperate! wrote: »

I'm in 6th year at the moment, a 17 year old male. I'm not gonna say where i'm from but it's in the south!

Since 5th year it's dawned on me that I'm not made for school. Most of the other 6th year students are all higher grade/better than average. I wouldn't care as much, but 98% of them are pretentious, cocky feckers who are all aiming for chemistry or biology degrees. Even the teachers are the same - my business teacher recently bashed social welfare payments and medical cards in front of our whole class!

I'm an average grade student, with interests in music, design and IT. I grew up with a different view on education - I'm the second person in my family to reach 6th year! My family aren't "stupid" either, most of them have great jobs which pay fairly well. I just want to end it all here, and go onto a working life but I'd be disappointing everyone I know.

I'm just so confused about all of this. I won't mind college but the thought of another few months with unbearable pressure put onto me is daunting.

Well for your interests, you arent going to get far without your 2nd level certification. I know plenty of people who went to college and came back with sound engineering degrees. Theyve since gone on to produce their own albums (and saved several thousand by doing so). Ever hear of Spare? They have a bebo page I think. Same goes for design and especially IT. I never did graduate but an IT course was a huge boost to my understanding of a lot of things I was completely in the dark about before.

I really dont get whats wrong with the Social Welfare and Medical Card thing? I dont see how its relevant. Study, get good grades, graduate.

The reason your 6th year counterparts seem more determined is because They Are. 2 kinds of people go into 6th year: the one's that are shoved in by their families, and the ones that are there because they choose to be there. They want good grades, They want to go to college.

Dont worry about being the 2nd 6th year in your family - thats BS. This is about You not Everyone Else. If you fixate on everything else its going to do nothing else but destroy your self confidence levels. Now you wanna leave and quit. Youll be dealing with assholes your entire life. Best learn how, now.

Im saying, think about it. If you still decide you wanna leave, then by all means. Just don't run off without a plan though, or you'll just be wasting time.

wylo

OP, no matter what, if you dont do your LC, you will turn around in a few years and seeing yourself doing it. Its very rare that people get anything out of life without that kind of education, granted you will hear the odd inspirational one in a million story about a guy that got rich from some business or something, but if I were you Id get real, you've only a few months to go, its wind down time after the pre's. Just put up with it for a few more months, life gets much better after school trust me, but we all had to do it, and so do you.

LegacyUser

Overheal wrote: »

Is it anything like this scrap i diddied up 6 months ago?

http://overheal1987.deviantart.com/art/Sketch-Quest-118155015

Cathartic, if nothing else.


Well for your interests, you arent going to get far without your 2nd level certification. I know plenty of people who went to college and came back with sound engineering degrees. Theyve since gone on to produce their own albums (and saved several thousand by doing so). Ever hear of Spare? They have a bebo page I think. Same goes for design and especially IT. I never did graduate but an IT course was a huge boost to my understanding of a lot of things I was completely in the dark about before.

I really dont get whats wrong with the Social Welfare and Medical Card thing? I dont see how its relevant. Study, get good grades, graduate.

The reason your 6th year counterparts seem more determined is because They Are. 2 kinds of people go into 6th year: the one's that are shoved in by their families, and the ones that are there because they choose to be there. They want good grades, They want to go to college.

Dont worry about being the 2nd 6th year in your family - thats BS. This is about You not Everyone Else. If you fixate on everything else its going to do nothing else but destroy your self confidence levels. Now you wanna leave and quit. Youll be dealing with assholes your entire life. Best learn how, now.

Im saying, think about it. If you still decide you wanna leave, then by all means. Just don't run off without a plan though, or you'll just be wasting time.

I was highlighting how my school is so pretentious and snobby. It's just an example of how they turn their back on even the students with these benefits.

Anyways, I'm gonna look at the mindmaps and I'm gonna stick it out. I've decided now! Thanks guys, you really did help in more ways you could ever imagine

Fiend-Foe

I'm 24 and I have several friends who left school without doing their leaving. EVERY single one of them regrets that decision now and wish they had stuck it out. Some have even gone back and done their leaving in the last few years.

I felt the same as you at your age. I left school for a while and then decided to go back and do my leaving, I'm so glad I did it now.

Its only a few more months, you can do it. Just stick it out! You've done it this long, whats the point in going through the last 6 years basically for nothing??

And if you decide to go on to college you'll probably love it there, the atmosphere is great.

fonpokno

Don't think you'll be disappointing anyone whatever you choose to do. It's your education, your Leaving Cert and your family will only want what's best for you.

The leaving isn't the end of the world. Don't listen to the stress-heads and the high achievers. The ones who stress over every tiny detail and cry after every exam are the same ones who burn themselves out in no time. It's a great thing to have and IMO it'd be better to do it and get 6 Ds than not do it at all. You're in the final stretch now, you've made it this far you can definitely do it.

Also your teachers are paid to think about exams all the time. They pile on a huge portion of the pressure but just know that it isn't as bad as it's made out to be.

OP, the construction boom is gone. There is no fall back anymore.. You'll never have any money or order to your life if you quit school. Everyone hates it, everyone wants to quit but if you actually do.. you'll regret it so bad. Apart from anything else, college is the best craic you'll ever have if you make it that far.

One of my best friends quit it years ago and has never worked anywhere but a cinema. She's unemployed now with no chance of a job. She wants to go back next year and try get it but even then, she'll never do as good a job as if she had finished it while she had the chance.

We're both 22, I have a degree and she has a Junior Cert. Go figure.

qwertytlk

I completley understand what you are thinking of doing because.. I was you 6 years ago! I was feeling the same things you describe in your post and was having a bad time at home too, so i got totally fed up one day and just walked out of school and never went back....
I understand how working life can look appealing compared to what you are doing right now and the pressure you are under but trust me its not so great when you are in a low or semi skilled job, working your ass off for a not-so-great pay check at the end of the week.

It may seem now that it would be so much easier to leave but in the long run you will regret it.
Personally, i left school, moved out of home and got a job. Things were ok - for a time but its only in the past 2 or 3 years that i have really realised the mistake i made and would do anything to go back and fix it, and you will too if you do this. I am 24 now, unemployed and absloutley DYING to go to full time college and get a degree so i can realise my full potential and have the life and job i deserve!

You dont even have 6 full months of school left! What a shame it would be to give up now when you are so close to the end and you can also think about this... There arent even many job prospects for people with full college degree's at the moment so how do you think you will get a decent job without even doing your leaving.

You have nothing to loose by doing it ...ONLY THINGS TO GAIN!

LegacyUser

Hi OP
Speaking as some one who is much older than most who have replied, I have to agree with them and implore you to stay on and finish your LC. As someone else said its not even a full six months you have to go.
I finished with a basic LC and went to work in a semi-skilled job I realised that to get anywhere I would need a 3rd level qualification and ended up studying at night for 8 years over about a 12 year period and it took twice as long to get my degree compared with someone who went stright to college.
I notice you are interested in IT. This year points for IT courses were not very high (under 400 on average I think) so with a bit of effort you should be able to get there. Some times you have to do boring stuff to get what you want. I even went back and did LC maths and english (had D in both on Pass Level) again to get a high enough grade for the Course I wanted.
Finally don't believe that all you fellow students are having it easier than you, most probably feel the same way as you. I know in the case of two of the courses I did the hardest time for me was the send half of the last year, I found it difficult to keep motivated and interested but I stuck with it and it has paid off very well in the long run.
Best of luck in your studies and with your life into the future.

Kipperhell

OP

I have over 10 years experience in IT and have been looking for work for over 6 months. Some companies won't even look at my CV because I don't have a degree let alone a LC. I would say you would be very lucky to work a decent IT job without the LC. You could get a really terrible job without any chance of progressing without the LC.

I regret not finishing college as it would have really helped to get work. In a few years you will be surprised what happens to people once they leave school. Some people will really surprise you both in good and bad ways. Some people who were dying to get into college dropped out in the first year as they couldn't handle the new structure