i want to drop out of college

Post Reply New Topic

...and work instead. to have money to fund my many hobbies that are taking up a lot of my free time and money. to feel like im contributing to the world instead of using up tax dollars or whatever to spend years in community college and not go anywhere.


i have no idea what to study, but i do know that i want to make art and learn an instrument or two. unemployment here is low. (maybe speech therapy? that was suggested to me.)


21 and have been going for 3 years only because i won't have a place to live if i don't. my father has no idea. nobody in my family has a single clue. all i want is to be creative, work a useful job or two and find out what i want to do BEFORE i waste time in college.

but why don't they get this??

I feel the same way. Why don't you find somewhere incredibly dingy to live where you can afford the rent? Get a job in McDonald's or something first. Not a nice way to start, perhaps, but at least you'll be independent.

I’m almost as old as you two combined, and I still want to avoid dropping out at all costs

Why cant you do what you want. Why is it up to your parents?

If you stick with your art, why not? Put the same amount of energy into it as you would a job.

Name me an artist who felt indebted to society?

Im old enough to be your grandmother and I would give a lot to go back and go to college. I never went. I had a great career, but by accident really. Major in something practical that will help put a roof over your head and add on your creative interest courses. If you drop out now, it’s hard to go back.

Does that mean you're in the third year of a four-year program? If so, I'd advise you definitely *not* to drop out. Once you drop out, it's really hard to get things together to go back and finish. Since you're already well along, you should stick it out to the end.

But, while you're doing that, you should certainly try to find relevant work that you can slide into once you graduate. Internships, part-time jobs, free-lance work -- experience with any of those things will make it much easier after you finish (and will keep you from going crazy in the mean time).

I have to constantly fight this mentality just to do what I actually want to professionally. Over & over I've been told by my parents what I can't do without a degree.

I'm 100% certain they're wrong, so says my resume.

No. I don’t think you should drop out.

I suspect most of here who have completed degrees in the past had at least one phase of wanting to chuck it in and walk.

I felt like that later on too, when battling for various goals.

Two maxims often came to mind during those disillusioned phases, and both were taught to me by older women whose achievements and courage earned my respect. The first was "a quitter never wins, and a winner never quits". Although I don't entirely accept that now, it helped get my first professional qualification. The second was "the path of least resistance is very often the most costly path in the long run".

Looking back over my life, I am particularly grateful for the wisdom conveyed by the second axiom, and I now believe it is far more true than I did when it was first shared with me, which was decades ago.

Take encouragement in whatever form works for you though; you are young, you still have some time to explore various options.

You’re an extremely smart guy. You get down on yourself out of proportion to reason. I’m jealous of your intelligence, actually. I’m sort of thinking you’re “too smart for your own good.”

Please don’t drop out. Get the Bachelor’s, at least.

You’re also good-looking, and no girl will reject you for your looks.

Okay I agree with the others now as they have given some good advice. You should stick it out.

If they are anything like my parents were, they are only concerned about you making money and joining the rat race. To be truthful, I wish I would have majored in a discipline that had a better ROI than music history and library science. My high school graduating class motto was “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.” Unfortunately, all my dreams ended up being nightmares, hence the PTSD diagnosis in addition to Bipolar I and ASD.

Don't drop out. As kortie says everyone has these patches. You are near the end, hang in there. If you feel like you what to be more productive and work why not look to complement your studies with something more practical on the side. If you are studying art either see if there are any teaching modules you can add on so you can teach art. If not, maybe teach art classes to kids somewhere locally to earn some money and get some experience.

Also, what about looking into art therapy training courses alongside your bachelors? What is your BA in exactly?

Also, if you are fed up at the moment - do they offer gap years? Take a year off and go roam the world or do some voluntary program overseas or something? There is always the JET program too!

oh yeah, i failed to mention.
i was unlucky enough to have been born and live in one of the most expensive, upper class towns in the entire country.
why am i complaining about this?
when you're a kid and live off of your parents, not being expected to fend for yourself, it's great.
but once you get older and the pressure to move out and fend for yourself climbs...well, what do you do?

rent can easily reach $1500, $2000 here for a small apartment with amenities. vacancies here are incredibly scarce. EVERYONE I KNOW IN MY AGE GROUP HAS MOVED OUT...with roommates. that's my ONLY option, and i do have one friend who shares a place with his friend and his GF, but they're not looking for other roommates right now. plus, i think the guirlfriend's father helps pay for it.

living anywhere on my own, dingyness notwithstanding with a mcdonalds salary is out of the question here. i do have a part time job at juicery with good hourly pay, but i work few hours. hence...why i want time for another job



no school = no place to live. they'll bid me adieu, and i'll be homeless.

i have family here, but if word gets out that i was kicked out of my home and i didn't willingly move out on my own, they won't be willing to take me in either, and given how gossipy my family is, on BOTH sides, word will spread quickly.

at the very least, it'll made my dad not get the f**k off my back and make living with him even more eye wateringly insufferable than it already is. he never went to college. he never passed high school. he doesn't know what it's like, how the hell does he think he knows what's best for me?



i already treat it like a job.
also i don't know any. but i've always felt like a leech - my whole life, really. i'm probably being one right now by posting here, and i'm sorry.



maybe i could do speech therapy?

i was made to go to speech therapy for 12 goddamn years (for stupid stuff like slight dentalisation of /s/ and /z/ sounds due to my background of spanish) so i should have some idea of what it's like...


i've had jobs for most of the time i've been here.

and no, i'm attending a community college at the moment, a third of my time here has been spent just doing general ed well... at least i'm getting the general ed taken care of here and not at a more expensive 4 year. and also since i'm on SSI i can get some enrollment fees waived, so that's nice.

also i took the spring semester off (working), and this is my first semester here since last fall. so i'm aware of what it's like to come back.



i've heard i'm "smart" a LOT but i'm not sure anyone has really given a convincing explanation for why they think so...so, kraftie, can you tell me what makes you think i'm smart? is it how i wrote? what i write about? my abilities?

because i don't feel it, and when i look around me, every day i see people who have life and the universe all figured out, but i don't. i've always felt like an alien no matter what i do or where i am. it's live i've been forced to play a game according to rules i was never taught, and it hurts.



false



yep, that sounds like them..had very limited schooling so worrying about money and the rat race is all they've really known. at least, while i've been alive. sorry to hear of those dreams..






i'm in the middle, if i'm lucky. teaching art would be nice and if i could do it, it would make me feel really good but i'm probably too awkward and have no experience teaching or being around kids

i plan to major in linguistics at the moment, so my current studies are geared towards finishing up any prerequisite courses and general ed here, and transferring to a state college for the BA stuff, BUt THAT WOULD REQUIRE ME TO MOVE, and i don't know how or where i would live.

there's a private university in my town, if i go there, i could live at home. maybe.

i've never heard of the jet program...i mentioned i did take a semester off. roaming the world is my dream but seems expensive (again money, funny how that seems to work it's way into everything isn't it?)

and yes i've heard of people doing it on a tight budget but i don't know how to do it and i lack the connections --- if anyone or anything could show me how these people do it that would be EPIC ily thanks