I want to drop out. PLEASE READ
+1
You should go to school when YOU want to go to school. Otherwise, you will HATE it...and you won't get the max out of the experience.
As long as you have a job you enjoy and opportunity to grow, that is enough. They might want you to get a degree in due time, but you might then WANT to because it's related to your job.
Education does not = opportunity anymore. Over half of all graduates can't get better jobs than what was available to them before college. Employers judge you more on proven ability in the workplace than how you did in school anyhow.
I have never taken screenwriting classes, but I know how to set up a script and have written a full length pilot. I'm working on a film one now. I've written 5-6 novellas that I tried to self-publish but took down and hope to improve.
_________________
Diagnosed with Aspergers, ADHD, Bipolar Type II, OCD, and generalized anxiety.
Regardless of whether you decide to go to school or not, since you want to be on TV in some way, have you tried community theatre? I know it is not film, BUT it will give you acting experience, and could lead to places where you can be an extra and so on. My sister did community theatre for a long time, and whenever a movie was being filmed anywhere in the vicinity, the community theatre people were always in it, knew where to go to get casted as an extra, etc.
MakaylaTheAspie
Veteran
Joined: 21 Jun 2011
Age: 28
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 14,565
Location: O'er the land of the so-called free and the home of the self-proclaimed brave. (Oregon)
Okay, since I've attended my college classes for the past week, I'm just going to say this - college is way better than high school.
It's a completely different experience. People are there because they need to be and they paid for it. No bullsh*t assignments, just get what you need and get out. (I go to CC, so I thought this would be applicable)
Part time makes it even easier because you can still work. And despites what other people say, there isn't really that much studying for it. Just give it a try and see if it's your thing.
_________________
Hi there! Please refer to me as Moss. Unable to change my username to reflect that change. Have a nice day. <3
If I read some of this crap right, they are forcing you to go to college with no financial aid and refuse to pay for it? If so, screw them. It's YOUR life. There is NOTHING wrong with working. Your parents are being extremely controlling.
Let me tell you a little secret about higher education. It's technically inflated beyond belief. You could say it's been in an asset bubble for a while, too. While it's true that college graduates have a lower unemployment rate, this is because college grads are in debt up to their eyeballs and are now taking all of the menial jobs that poor people on welfare used to do. I wish I was joking. I even had an engineer tell me I'm wrong about all of this and that people that can't get jobs shouldn't have taken "basket weaving" as a degree. He said they should have chosen a STEM major. He then stated that if a STEM major couldn't find a job, they are either lazy or chose the "wrong" STEM major.
Do you see where I'm going with this? Everyone around you is acting like education is a for-sure investment no matter the price, risks, or outcomes. This is exactly the same kind of mania that happened with the housing bubble (and is continuing again).
Step 1: Lose that as*hole of a therapist. Get one who is KIND and not an idiot.
Step 2: Keep working and drop out. Tell your parents that it's ridiculous to expect you to have a meltdown from doing both school and work. You will obviously fall into a deep depression if this happens.
Step 3. Tell them a theater major is more useless than no college at all. It's kind of true, mostly. You are very likely to become overqualified for certain jobs if you get a degree and it's not able to be utilized much, if at all.
Step 4. Ask them why, if college is so important, why doesn't your dad go back to school? When they tell you he doesn't need to because he already makes enough money, ask why you can't follow his path. Ask if your dad can train you in his field (even if you don't like it). Express a bit of interest in learning hands-on.
Step 5. Try to find programs that help autistic adults find what skills they have or are capable of. I don't know what your current job is, but it might be possible to get promotions. Look into trades, too. I'm dead serious when I say females are needed in trades, and you might be accepted into an apprenticeship right away.
Step 6. Tell your family you love them, but this is your life. Explain that current college students are graduating with high levels of debt, poor job prospects, and just come right back home to live with their parents. Say you are already a winner for having a job (many young people have EXTREMELY high unemployment in certain areas-I'm talking like 30%) and that you just want experience.
Personally, I was in HS online and had a job. I was already failing HS, I was 19 and still had a year left. I was also living in a group home and paying rent. The school official came to my home and told me to quit my job blah blah blah. They gave the staff at my group home my PW to monitor me. Everyone told me I would fail in life if I didn't graduate. I don't do well with controlling people, so I dropped out. I got my GED and worked. Guess what? I will be going to school for engineering. Everyone in my life that put me down for dropping out or being a "loser" is working at a crappy job. In a few years. If I wanted to, I could do something completely different and move up in the company. While it's not true that hard work guarantees a good job and paycheck, there are employers that still consider it. You have the drive and work ethic. I wish you luck with all of this.
Let me tell you a little secret about higher education. It's technically inflated beyond belief. You could say it's been in an asset bubble for a while, too. While it's true that college graduates have a lower unemployment rate, this is because college grads are in debt up to their eyeballs and are now taking all of the menial jobs that poor people on welfare used to do. I wish I was joking. I even had an engineer tell me I'm wrong about all of this and that people that can't get jobs shouldn't have taken "basket weaving" as a degree. He said they should have chosen a STEM major. He then stated that if a STEM major couldn't find a job, they are either lazy or chose the "wrong" STEM major.
Do you see where I'm going with this? Everyone around you is acting like education is a for-sure investment no matter the price, risks, or outcomes. This is exactly the same kind of mania that happened with the housing bubble (and is continuing again).
Step 1: Lose that as*hole of a therapist. Get one who is KIND and not an idiot.
Step 2: Keep working and drop out. Tell your parents that it's ridiculous to expect you to have a meltdown from doing both school and work. You will obviously fall into a deep depression if this happens.
Step 3. Tell them a theater major is more useless than no college at all. It's kind of true, mostly. You are very likely to become overqualified for certain jobs if you get a degree and it's not able to be utilized much, if at all.
Step 4. Ask them why, if college is so important, why doesn't your dad go back to school? When they tell you he doesn't need to because he already makes enough money, ask why you can't follow his path. Ask if your dad can train you in his field (even if you don't like it). Express a bit of interest in learning hands-on.
Step 5. Try to find programs that help autistic adults find what skills they have or are capable of. I don't know what your current job is, but it might be possible to get promotions. Look into trades, too. I'm dead serious when I say females are needed in trades, and you might be accepted into an apprenticeship right away.
Step 6. Tell your family you love them, but this is your life. Explain that current college students are graduating with high levels of debt, poor job prospects, and just come right back home to live with their parents. Say you are already a winner for having a job (many young people have EXTREMELY high unemployment in certain areas-I'm talking like 30%) and that you just want experience.
Personally, I was in HS online and had a job. I was already failing HS, I was 19 and still had a year left. I was also living in a group home and paying rent. The school official came to my home and told me to quit my job blah blah blah. They gave the staff at my group home my PW to monitor me. Everyone told me I would fail in life if I didn't graduate. I don't do well with controlling people, so I dropped out. I got my GED and worked. Guess what? I will be going to school for engineering. Everyone in my life that put me down for dropping out or being a "loser" is working at a crappy job. In a few years. If I wanted to, I could do something completely different and move up in the company. While it's not true that hard work guarantees a good job and paycheck, there are employers that still consider it. You have the drive and work ethic. I wish you luck with all of this.
I don't completely think a theater degree is useless. Even if I don't have my dream of fame, I can use to it be a teacher or a professor of theater.
_________________
Diagnosed with Aspergers, ADHD, Bipolar Type II, OCD, and generalized anxiety.
Let me tell you a little secret about higher education. It's technically inflated beyond belief. You could say it's been in an asset bubble for a while, too. While it's true that college graduates have a lower unemployment rate, this is because college grads are in debt up to their eyeballs and are now taking all of the menial jobs that poor people on welfare used to do. I wish I was joking. I even had an engineer tell me I'm wrong about all of this and that people that can't get jobs shouldn't have taken "basket weaving" as a degree. He said they should have chosen a STEM major. He then stated that if a STEM major couldn't find a job, they are either lazy or chose the "wrong" STEM major.
Do you see where I'm going with this? Everyone around you is acting like education is a for-sure investment no matter the price, risks, or outcomes. This is exactly the same kind of mania that happened with the housing bubble (and is continuing again).
Step 1: Lose that as*hole of a therapist. Get one who is KIND and not an idiot.
Step 2: Keep working and drop out. Tell your parents that it's ridiculous to expect you to have a meltdown from doing both school and work. You will obviously fall into a deep depression if this happens.
Step 3. Tell them a theater major is more useless than no college at all. It's kind of true, mostly. You are very likely to become overqualified for certain jobs if you get a degree and it's not able to be utilized much, if at all.
Step 4. Ask them why, if college is so important, why doesn't your dad go back to school? When they tell you he doesn't need to because he already makes enough money, ask why you can't follow his path. Ask if your dad can train you in his field (even if you don't like it). Express a bit of interest in learning hands-on.
Step 5. Try to find programs that help autistic adults find what skills they have or are capable of. I don't know what your current job is, but it might be possible to get promotions. Look into trades, too. I'm dead serious when I say females are needed in trades, and you might be accepted into an apprenticeship right away.
Step 6. Tell your family you love them, but this is your life. Explain that current college students are graduating with high levels of debt, poor job prospects, and just come right back home to live with their parents. Say you are already a winner for having a job (many young people have EXTREMELY high unemployment in certain areas-I'm talking like 30%) and that you just want experience.
Personally, I was in HS online and had a job. I was already failing HS, I was 19 and still had a year left. I was also living in a group home and paying rent. The school official came to my home and told me to quit my job blah blah blah. They gave the staff at my group home my PW to monitor me. Everyone told me I would fail in life if I didn't graduate. I don't do well with controlling people, so I dropped out. I got my GED and worked. Guess what? I will be going to school for engineering. Everyone in my life that put me down for dropping out or being a "loser" is working at a crappy job. In a few years. If I wanted to, I could do something completely different and move up in the company. While it's not true that hard work guarantees a good job and paycheck, there are employers that still consider it. You have the drive and work ethic. I wish you luck with all of this.
I don't completely think a theater degree is useless. Even if I don't have my dream of fame, I can use to it be a teacher or a professor of theater.
Those jobs are VERY hard to find. It's, very unrealistic to think you would land one no matter how good you are, unfortunately. However, it works in your favor because keeping a job is more on line with reality than fantasy. I don't say any of this with the intention to offend. There are plenty of people that are great at what they do, yet they are unemployed. Theater is very, very risky.
Consider that even science and math teachers are having a hard time finding a job anywhere. Each school is more likely to have several of those. It's like saying "Well, my history professor is employed, and each school has a few of those, therefor it's not that impossible". I suppose that would be fine if only a few people had the intention of being a history professor. However, like theater, there are way more people than positions available. I don't want to make you upset. Even scientists and engineers can't find jobs, if that helps put the economy in perspective.
I had a similar experience my first year of college (which was just this past year). I got very stressed and overwhelmed, I just had too much going on, and on top of that I didn't even like the majority of my classes. I ended up spending the last two months only leaving my dorm to get food and work my part-time job, just so I could keep on living. If I tried to get back on track I would have meltdowns when things didn't go according to my schedule. I hadn't had a meltdown for months when I first went off on my own to college, and after being there for a while they became pretty frequent. I only went to college because that was what I was expected to do, and I didn't have any way of suggesting to my parents I didn't feel ready or possibly wanted to do something else.
Many of my friends and family have called me a genius, I got insanely high test scores, especially in math and science, and that put even more pressure on me to "do something" with that intelligence. It's stupid that modern culture makes it seem like you have to go to college to be a valued citizen, and unfortunately the fact that so many people believe that actually makes it true. But in my mind, that would mean getting a degree in theater will be more useful than not getting a degree (assuming you aren't taking out huge loans and making disproportionate sacrifices in order to do so).
I love singing and music. I really would enjoy majoring in music, and I think that even if it is hard to find a job with a music major, it's the only way I will even be motivated to get my degree, let alone actually be able to do it. I can do a different minor, and still have something to put on my resume for other jobs if I can't find something right away, teaching music or performing or whatever.
So my advice: drop out of school for now, or do part-time at least. Work now and save as much as you can, and if you want to major in theater then do it when you can. I see no reason to major in something you know you won't like, that didn't work out very well for me anyway. And I don't think a theater major is MORE useless than no college, as long as you didn't go into tens of thousands of dollars of debt to get the degree, which I can't imagine racking up that much debt at a community college. Any degree looks better than none, and sometimes jobs don't even require a specific degree, but they do want someone who has some kind of degree. My dad is in the Air Force, and he met a general who majored in music. His job had nothing to do with music, yet he was a high-ranking officer, and if he had not obtained a degree he would not have even qualified for a commission, let alone to get promoted all the way to general. This is just one example, but if the military, which has very strict requirements for applicants who want to be commissioned, and no jobs even related to music, made him an officer, I don't see why this same type of thing couldn't be true for other jobs.
Also, it is probably true that it would be hard to find a job involving theater right away. But it doesn't mean you would be turned away from other jobs for being "overqualified", that's just silly. And I seriously doubt that you would never ever be able to find a job involving theater with a major in theater, even if it might just be teaching a high school class on it. This is my plan with getting a music major anyway, I would like to get famous for singing in a band or a solo career, but I would settle for teaching a high school choir class, as long as I can do something with music.
_________________
"It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important."
- Sherlock Holmes
Many of my friends and family have called me a genius, I got insanely high test scores, especially in math and science, and that put even more pressure on me to "do something" with that intelligence. It's stupid that modern culture makes it seem like you have to go to college to be a valued citizen, and unfortunately the fact that so many people believe that actually makes it true. But in my mind, that would mean getting a degree in theater will be more useful than not getting a degree (assuming you aren't taking out huge loans and making disproportionate sacrifices in order to do so).
I love singing and music. I really would enjoy majoring in music, and I think that even if it is hard to find a job with a music major, it's the only way I will even be motivated to get my degree, let alone actually be able to do it. I can do a different minor, and still have something to put on my resume for other jobs if I can't find something right away, teaching music or performing or whatever.
So my advice: drop out of school for now, or do part-time at least. Work now and save as much as you can, and if you want to major in theater then do it when you can. I see no reason to major in something you know you won't like, that didn't work out very well for me anyway. And I don't think a theater major is MORE useless than no college, as long as you didn't go into tens of thousands of dollars of debt to get the degree, which I can't imagine racking up that much debt at a community college. Any degree looks better than none, and sometimes jobs don't even require a specific degree, but they do want someone who has some kind of degree. My dad is in the Air Force, and he met a general who majored in music. His job had nothing to do with music, yet he was a high-ranking officer, and if he had not obtained a degree he would not have even qualified for a commission, let alone to get promoted all the way to general. This is just one example, but if the military, which has very strict requirements for applicants who want to be commissioned, and no jobs even related to music, made him an officer, I don't see why this same type of thing couldn't be true for other jobs.
Also, it is probably true that it would be hard to find a job involving theater right away. But it doesn't mean you would be turned away from other jobs for being "overqualified", that's just silly. And I seriously doubt that you would never ever be able to find a job involving theater with a major in theater, even if it might just be teaching a high school class on it. This is my plan with getting a music major anyway, I would like to get famous for singing in a band or a solo career, but I would settle for teaching a high school choir class, as long as I can do something with music.
Unfortunately, some of this isn't true. I know a philosophy major who went through this, a communications major, and others. They aren't the only ones who are now overqualified. It SEEM silly, but if you are working low end jobs, they don't want someone with a degree. They consider you a risk because you are a degree holder and they think you will leave the job and it's temporary.
There are millions of unemployed and underemployed people with years of relevant experience. Why would someone hire you? Millions of college grads are stuck in the over qualified trap most likely (just judging from stories, underemployment data, so on). I'm just trying to warn you guys is all.
I wish you could follow your dreams, but life does not give a crap about what makes you happy.
There are millions of unemployed and underemployed people with years of relevant experience. Why would someone hire you? Millions of college grads are stuck in the over qualified trap most likely (just judging from stories, underemployment data, so on). I'm just trying to warn you guys is all.
I wish you could follow your dreams, but life does not give a crap about what makes you happy.
That is true, I didn't really think of it that way. But then again, I don't think you are actually required to tell a potential employer about your degree, right? If that was really going to be a possible problem, you could just put your job experience, and that you got a diploma or GED. I mean, I'm pretty sure that it isn't illegal to exclude the fact that you have a college degree on your resume. You would just tailor it to whatever employer you were looking to get hired by, only include relevant and helpful information, and exclude the rest. Unless they specifically wanted to know and you directly lied and said you didn't have a degree I don't see why this would be a problem.
_________________
"It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important."
- Sherlock Holmes
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