I'm currently in school, but lately wondering about leaving for LA..my music scene sucks here, so i wondered is it really worth waiting for A diploma, in your opinions?
depends on what your further plans are, i guess. what kind of job do you want to get later on? do you want to work at all? are you interested in the things you learn? are you interested in learning at all? is the atmosphere good or bad at school? many questions... i guess more informations will be helpful for members to help you
i don't know enough about either yr personal situation nor the US education system to give u much specific advice. But anywayz, it is entirely up to you. Do you actually want a diploma? Do you want to drop out to go and have to support yrself in some shitty minimum wage job in LA? Remember you can also go back to school, although it may be more difficult having to work full time to support yrself whilst studying, rather than having yr parents to house and feed ya... Are you in secondary or tertiary education? Down here in Australia it is really easy to take a year or two 'leave of absence' (one year you just fill in a form then you get a year off, two or more you need a doctor to write something like 'x has depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, etc, etc'; neither particularly difficult...) from tertiary courses; maybe its the same in the US? i.e. you could take a year off, move to LA, then see if ya wanna stay?
Although I hate school system ( I don't hate education ! ), I can't leave school becouse there's a fear which won't let me. I'm affraid I won't have a "normal" life. Also, I think it's almost neccesery to finish school to critisize it, others will want to hear your opinion ( It's sad that they will accept your opinion if you have diploma otherwise they won't - but, that's society ) and they will surely think about it. If you're in the middle of education, then I wouldn't recommend it becouse you have already finished one part, so why leave now and lose everything you have achomplished until now ? I wouldn't drop out school just becouse of the "scene". School is best way of "spreading" your opinions, teaching others about anarchy ( or anything ). I'm currently in highschool and I thought about dropping out but I changed my mind, becouse I don't have anything else to do in my life. It's more-less boring here, all anarchists are way older then me so I don't hang out with them, and I don't have anyone to go out with ( I do, but that's just not as fun as it could be ). Cheers and welcome to the forum
i dropped out of high school when i was seventeen, thought i couldn't take it anymore, it was boring, my class mates lobotomized teenagers in pink and light blue, my parents absorbed with their midlifecrisis and always complaining about my ingratitude "when i was your age, i didn't had the opportunities..." - what a mess. i got caught on punk and a little politics, but i never really did anything except feeling bored - so i dropped out. eight years later i have a problem if i start looking for a job: a) some shitty minimum wage job: you didn't finish high school? why? (I lie...) oh, you're faar too qualified... b) a well payed job/job training: you didn't finish high school? sorry, but we need qualified people... when i was at school i enjoyed using the library with lots of media, reading and researching stuff far away from the school-stuff, punk, arts, politics and some sciences related with nuclears and enviroment protection - the public libraries weren't that good - maybe i should have used it more than i did - instead of dropping out just because i felt so fucking boooored!
If you're in school just to train for a job you will end up being miserable, even if you get the job. If you are in school to learn about the things you want to learn about and improve your mind you'll get more out of it. As a byproduct of changing your focus you'll have better chances of finding an occupation better suited to making you happy. JIMHO.
I'd definitely graduate at the very least. If only to find a decent job later, its worth trudging through. It's not like you have to work super hard, just get it done and then decide what you want to do. Worst thing that can happen is that you end up not needing it. Better to have the diploma and never use it than to be forced to work a crappy job because you didn't finish school. High school wasn't that bad for me personally since I didn't work too hard and I had a good group of friends to party with. TL;DR Graduate, just to be on the safe side.
lulz at JC STAY IN SCHOOL KID! for your own benefit. Similar to a job, just put up with the bullshit. Sneak in there and GET 'EM! you've got your whole life to dick around in LA
It's easy as shit, man And having a GED >>>>> what I would be doing in high school now. And I'm pretty sure it's effectively the same as a high school diploma, at least in most/many situations...
wow thanks for the advice. i just turned 17 yesterday. Currently in "Alternative High School".The people here suck. And i want to meet people that like the same music. This school is shit, i just go here because you get to miss more days, than public Highschool.And fewer credits to graduate, like 7 less.otherwise i wont get kicked out.The kids here like to party, so thats an upside. But everyday, its on my mind. The teachers are racist.
No it's never worth it. BUt dropping out and having no applicability for the workforce isn't either. But honestly, I would drop out if I could. It's just that I'm only 15, so I might as well just finish the shit and then runaway and travel. I don't wanna get a job and live boring normal life. I would dropout now but I'm fucking jailbait and I'll get in too much damn trouble.
Just find yourself something useful to do 'till you finish, start a band, read, write, paint, make photos, whatever, but FINISH THE SHIT! Got kicked out with 15 in arch-conservative bavaria, left me parents shortly after that - and believe me: It's been no walk in the park... and the sumtimes amazing/un-normal life I live is still no bed of roses... and some more opportunities to choose won't hurt.
I think the LA punk scene is thriving pretty welll these days. That shouldn't be your only reason to drop out. School was pretty fun for me, I would have been bored out of my mind, if i just stayed at home all day.
I have a friend in Spain that is 35 and about to finish her Doctorate in History, she is hardcore CNT and is as active an anarchist as one could hope to be, she is leaving for Morroco tomorrow to hook up with the Saharai people, and when she gets back she will be exhuming the corpse of a Compañero from the CNT FAI that was murdered during the civil war and cruelly buried. School can take you many places and allow many open doors to activism that would otherwise be closed. It is a double edged sword that can be wielded according to the user. P.S. Miri, if you ever read this, you are my hero!
I should probably get my GED soon. I finally dropped out in the middle of my senior year, after failing 10th grade twice due to absences. If you can graduate, I'd say you should. I'm seeing a bunch of kids I know going off to college and I regret that I'm not. I love learning, I love knowledge, I love the growth that comes after reading a good book. Skipping school taught me lessons that I never could have learned in a classroom. It taught me brotherhood and love, about decadent poverty, about the simple pleasures of sitting at the counter of a diner and drinking black coffee until my hangover was gone, to be my own person and to grow some backbone. I sat in an infoshop almost every day for a month, reading. I learned the hard lesson that comes when a union loses its final stand at the deceit of those in power. I've listened to a wise older punk try to force me to give myself a future, to a scumfuck slightly younger than him encourage me to do the opposite, to a teacher cry because he thought he failed me. These are not all lessons I'm proud to have learned. A good scene will still exist when you've graduated, someone handing you an education, no matter how shitty, won't. A journal entry I wrote recently reads as follows: More and more I regret not graduating and going to college. The education I provided myself is more meaningful to me, but useless in a blue-collar, capitalist society. Sometimes you have to work with the system to change it, and I fear I've missed that chance. As much as I despise the US school system, I'm starting to realize that my opinions don't matter without the shitty piece of paper to back them up. Dropping out was cool when the scumfucks told me it was a good idea to blow off class to drink and go to shows. Playing punk rock was fun for those precious months. Now I feel I'm just a meaningless statistic, a rebel without a cause, another drop-out that can be pointed to as a reason punk is a road to destruction, no matter how meaningless the claim is. Please don't make my mistakes.
