Post-high school burnout

Post Reply New Topic

Thank you for your thoughtful compliments. Yes, I have worked on my social skills, at times probably overtrying, but now I think generally finding a happy medium. I tell myself, I have medium social skills! And that's plenty good enough. I can have real conversations with real human beings, mistakes and all. Just part of the texture of life and the texture of the situation.

That is dysfunctional on the part of the staff. Even with you moving out, you may need one or more advocates. And strategically, if you're planning to move out on say Sept 15th, you might want to tell people you're moving out on the 18th. That way, you're just gone. And any person who has acted mean before does not have one last chance to bully you. Play this one by feel and texture, but this is definitely an option to consider.

If you have an Aunt, a socially skilled friend, perhaps someone from the school, who could be with you as you talk with a manager, consider that as a method. Again, trust yourself, feel and texture, and go with what feels most promising.

'I just want the behavior to stop.' You may need to settle for that, although what you'd really like, as I would, would be a heartfelt apology. Sometimes the person's just not there and just can't give that.

-------------------------------

All the best with your histology studies. And, depending on how it goes and how you like it, consider medical research. There's no reason you couldn't work in a lab as you continue to take classes. In fact, that might make for very good interplay between theory and practice. Research is an area where someone who is skilled at sustained concentration can play to strength.

Rehabiliation providing the quiet room sounds good. In addition, I have found that college campuses often have tables and desks in areas that are quiet and still safe, and I love that. There are people around but not talking.

In addition, sometimes in the morning on the way to work or school or errands, I will sit in a grocery parking lot with my windows slightly cracked (very slightly on driver's side, slightly more on passenger's side) while I read or write. It's private, it's safe, but there are still people around. And it's reasonable quiet (or the noise has a realistic, reasonable explanation).

--------------------------------------

It helps me sometimes, in addition to my serious studying, to have a fun book going on the side.

I took a year off to recover from high school, though I didn't think of it as such at the time. I was emotionally exhausted from it. In the fall, I worked with grown-ups in a political campaign. I learned to pace myself after working too much one day. (Useful lesson) Still I was burned out from the job. Later, I was unable to find another job due to the recession.

The next fall I entered college and had a great change. It was a big school, so I didn't have associate with people I didn't like. I also didn't see the same people day after day. I actually learned something from the classes, for a change. My social life improved tremendously, though my love life lagged behind by a few years.

Yeah that's something that baffles me a bit about college education: it's in a way supposed to help prepare me for a job in a specialized field, but when I actually go to apply for the jobs after graduation, I find them requiring skills that my classes didn't teach me. When I was applying for chem and biology technician positions after graduation, employers would ask for all sorts of weird things that they never taught in the classes, but luckily I got the experience from working in research labs. There seems to be some fundamental disconnect between the classroom and the practical scenarios. I guess some curricula don't get updated as much as they should!!

I've heard professors adamantly confess that the skill school teaches you are already outdated before you graduate. In fact, with computers, it's 10x worse because they can't afford to buy copies of the latest software for training. The school can't afford it. The kids can't afford it, and they are imposing stuff to prevent people using illicit copies (yes, academia knows it happens and quietly looks the other way).

So, how are they supposed to train kids on the software now coming into use when even academic pricing makes it too expensive to get enough legitimate copies for the whole class?

This is one reason why I want to go into undergraduate teaching, so I can help give students some more practical instruction in an academic setting... kinda making the four-year schools a bit more trade school-like. As for the schools being able to afford the most updated materials with which to teach their students, I don't know if there's an easy solution to that. What I don't particularly like is that at research institutions, student tuition goes in part towards paying for faculty salaries. I'm not saying that tuition shouldn't do this at all, but if students are going to be paying for their own instruction, at the very least please have undergraduate instructors who actually care about teaching!! The vast majority of faculty I've met at UC Berkeley as an undergrad and at Yale as a grad student don't give a flying f**k about teaching. They'd much rather attend to their own research labs, so it's little wonder that they half-ass the instruction part of their responsibilities. That could be why they can admit that what they teach is outdated by the time the students graduate, but are unwilling to do much about it. The tenure process isn't about teaching, it's about research. The universities get their accolades and hot news stories not from teaching, but from research. I may be just one person, but I think it's stupid and I want to fix that.

College is essentially useless. My major (economics) is taught in an extremely biased way in most universities. Most teach one (and extremely inaccurate, by the way) macroeconomic theory known as "Keynesian". It really makes it hard to care at all. Honestly, I've learned much more about Economics on my own than I have in school. It really sucks, because Macro is about half of what you learn.

College hasn't really opened my mind at all. It's just stuffing you into another box. I kind of agree with zer0netgain that college is a lot of social indoctrination and elitist programming. College professors and the like seem to really disencourage individual work, which is one thing I think is wrong with society today. For me so far, the experience has seemed more like a preparation for being part of the "hive mind" where nobody can rely on themselves and everyone stays in contact with Twitter. *shudder*

Where do your interests lie, Nick? Personally I wouldn't recommend college unless it's for engineering or the sciences. That's only because those require resources that you most likely won't have lying around your house. Otherwise, college will turn anything fun into boring crap. If you do go to college, you should try to do some unique dual-major to make yourself more competitive. After I get my Econ degree, I'm going back for Mechanical Engineering. Yeah, I'm not looking too forward to it, but a Mechanical Engineer with a good background in Economics will stick out of the crowd.

Well, you can't get people to accept the idea that we are "interdependent" if they are able to hook up with 2 or 3 people and be totally self-sufficient, can you?

I had the same experience. After high school graduation, I was just totally exhausted. I blamed it on my blindness (AS was undiagnosed at the time) and thought I needed some training in alternative techniques for the blind, so I went to a rehab center for four months. I took that year off school-wise even though I was done with rehab by December, because I'd expected to be on the waiting list longer and would've been doen by Feb (college enrollemtn can be in Sept or Jan/Feb). I didn't "forget" about college, although since none of the training I received helped me get over the burned-out state I was in (would seem logical since it probably had nothing to do with a lack of practical skills, but what did I know then?), I did doubt my ability to go to college more. However, I didcomplete one year of college and two months of university, but then dropped out.

I amnot sure if simply taking a year off would help you, if you don't have the skills (eg. social skills, organizational skills, etc.) to manage at college. You won't get htem without learning them just by waiting a year. You might see if you can find a local community college that may have more supports available to students, and try to work on whatever skills you are lacking while being there. You will still have some experience of what school is like and not "forget", but you won't be thrown in at the deep end, so to speak. I'm not sure if that would work out now that it's already August however. Alternatively, you could get a job and then perhaps do some classes (where I live, there are short-term courses thar are not formal college, but you can get credit).

Of course this assumes that you will get better by taking it easier for a while and having more supports or whatever. As I said, I dropped out of uni. While I regret that, I wouldn't know how I could get hte skills/resources/coping strategies to return.

and

Why are you going back for a second degree if you think college is essentially useless?

By the way, there is a level of indoctrination in undergraduate studies, because you have to know the dogma in order to challenge it. If you want to be able to think on your own, try getting a PhD then. The first thing they tell you in graduate school is "everything you learned as an undergrad is a lie, don't believe it".

In my book, you don't pay someone to teach you lies (at least I don't).

I would if I don't have to spend years and years to figure out something, only to find out that it's a lie. Might as well get it done and over with, in my book.

The thing is, it's not all a lie. But it just takes way too long to try to figure out the truth all by yourself from absolute scratch. In order to figure out the truth, you have to sift through a lot of false crap too, no matter which route you take... college education or not. At the very least in college I can get the false crap (plus the more rare gems) presented to me in a convenient package, rather than taking years to accumulate what ends up being mostly crap. You just have to be able pick through the crap to find the gems.

That's not to say that formal education can entirely replace practical experience. Indeed it cannot, not by a long shot. But when the two are used in wise combination and balance, you can get a lot further in understanding truth, than you can with either one alone.

What I meant by "college is essentially useless" is that almost everything you study there can be learned better and more quickly on your own. College just makes learning slow and boring. The exception is the sciences and engineering, because expensive equipment and materials are needed for those. About the only reason for going to college is to get that piece of paper that'll let you get a decent job.
The reason I'm going to go back and do Mechanical Engineering is that it only takes a Bachelor's (instead of a PhD like in Econ) to get a good job. Also, since you actually work with your hands in engineering, I'll feel like I'm actually doing something useful with my time instead of throwing valuable money away to learn bogus theories that I could easily look up on my own.

That didn't sound right. I'll correct it....

You can't get students to believe that the whole world is "interdependent" and national identities are archaic when a handful of people are able to isolate themselves and be totally self-sufficient, can you?

Nope, I suppose you can't.