How I did it: I nearly didn't, to be honest. I have asperger's syndrome, a disorder that impairs me socially. Additionally, my intelligence level has always been "gifted" compared to my average peers. My place was an outcast no one knew, who wasn't "in" with any certain crowd and didn't participate in anything extracurricular. Needless to say, I was always an easy target for bullying. I spent most of my time trying to fend off the clique that ruled the school along with their friend/relative staff members who supported them in it. There were a few teachers and at least two other staff members who weren't involved with that madness who would actually support me. Generally though it was a bad learning environment for me, and hindered my ability to focus on the actual educational process. I was there to learn, not to deal with idiots, and unlike them was actually interested in putting forth my effort toward lessons and assignments. Yet it doesn't matter little you try, only the favored and known idiots will ever have a chance at things like scholarships and awards, not those who actually work for it! I've heard similar accounts from others, too. It's really an unfair bunch of crap. I know I'm not the only one with this sort of experience, though. Unless you were one of the "populars", that's just how it generally seems to go for many people. It was just worse than average for me with my personal/mental issues as a factor. Anyway, there were a few people I talked with occasionally in highschool who weren't jerks but I'm long out of contact with any of them. By now, I've also realized that I've never had to utilize anything I learned in highschool in daily life, and I've forgotten much of it. The things I use in daily life require little more than an elementary level education. My diploma was for nothing. It serves as a reminder of what a horrible waste of time I had to put up with. I never even managed to get a job with it because I came to learn time and again to the point that I gave up, that employers just don't want anything to do with people with asperger's. Too easy to screw up their business with other people you'd have to communicate with. But that's another story for another day.

Lessons & tips: If you, too, are facing the "bullying problem", you can save yourself a lot of heartache by just dropping and waiting until later to obtain your GED at a local community college where you're guaranteed to be surrounded by mostly (if not all) mature adults who simply want the same thing you do. Or you could just not bother. The job rate is terrible these days and if you have some sort of disability, you're screwed on getting one anyway. If you're doing it for just the practical purpose of learning things... well, guess what, it's not worth it. You're never going to use any of that stuff.

Resources: My own experience surviving highschool.

Oct 01, 2009, 08:18PM PDT | 0 comments