I used to think natural talent mattered. I was a very smart kid in school.
Now I know better... Talent doesn't mean shit without a lot of hard work. It matters so little, in fact, that you can succeed without natural talent if you just work really hard at something.
I didn't realize this until the start of highschool, and it's still kicking my ass.
I always got extremely high scores on my tests at school. I was reading at a college reading level in the 4th grade. I never worried about getting above benchmark on standardized tests, because I was in the top 5% with my worst subjects and top 1% in my best subjects on every test I took. I hit A / AB honor roll through out elementary school and part of the way through middle school. I never studied. I never even really did homework. I just went to school, destroyed whatever assigment I had to do, and went home and played video games or whatever.
In 9th grade, I had to take remedial Algebra 1, because I got below an 88% on my final the previous year. Now, I didn't have the greatest teacher, but many other kids passed the test and moved on. I didn't do my homework, but this time I started dropping grades. A rare C became strings of Cs and Ds in a heartbeat. I started failing a couple classes. The results of the effort I was putting in before wasn't netting me compliments, but concerned questions by my parents and teachers. I was 15 years old and didn't know how to study; it had never even crossed my mind before. I didn't really know how to do actual assigments, because I was used to small worksheets that took 5 minutes to do. Everyone else could do their work just fine, but I just collapsed at the first sight of struggle.
Now, I'm a few weeks shy of 18 - and I basically don't have a future. My grades are shit, and I don't care anymore. My dreams of graduating early through busting out all my classes have turned into legitimate considerations of dropping out. I'm not completely fucked in the grades department, but the other things I have to do before I graduate are going to be impossible, because I have literally no work ethic (this comment is probably more work I've done in school for the past two weeks we were present).
Everyone around me is completely fine - talking about the college they're going to and how they're already accepted and know what they're taking. Meanwhile, I'm not even sure if I'll still be in school at the end of this month. There's so much backlogged work that I have to take care of. There's so much stuff ahead of me that needs to get done. However, I have no skills that will help me get them done. I don't have disipline. I don't have work ethic. Hell - at this point, I don't even really have the will or desire to continue on.
If I learned how to work a long time ago, I would probably be much successful - and happier.
But you have most of your life ahead of you. Just because you buggered things up for now does not mean you can't have a good future. It just means you will have to do things in your own time rather than everyone else's.
I dropped out of school, but put myself through college twice; once in my 20s and once in my 30s. I got distinctions both times. Do what you want to do, and if you don't know what that is, do something that you tolerate and that brings in the money while you ponder on it. Worked for me. :)
I think for me it was that you have a finite amount of family, and they'll be taken from you with time. You have to appreciate them while they are there.
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I used to think natural talent mattered. I was a very smart kid in school.
Now I know better... Talent doesn't mean shit without a lot of hard work. It matters so little, in fact, that you can succeed without natural talent if you just work really hard at something.
I didn't realize this until the start of highschool, and it's still kicking my ass.
I always got extremely high scores on my tests at school. I was reading at a college reading level in the 4th grade. I never worried about getting above benchmark on standardized tests, because I was in the top 5% with my worst subjects and top 1% in my best subjects on every test I took. I hit A / AB honor roll through out elementary school and part of the way through middle school. I never studied. I never even really did homework. I just went to school, destroyed whatever assigment I had to do, and went home and played video games or whatever.
In 9th grade, I had to take remedial Algebra 1, because I got below an 88% on my final the previous year. Now, I didn't have the greatest teacher, but many other kids passed the test and moved on. I didn't do my homework, but this time I started dropping grades. A rare C became strings of Cs and Ds in a heartbeat. I started failing a couple classes. The results of the effort I was putting in before wasn't netting me compliments, but concerned questions by my parents and teachers. I was 15 years old and didn't know how to study; it had never even crossed my mind before. I didn't really know how to do actual assigments, because I was used to small worksheets that took 5 minutes to do. Everyone else could do their work just fine, but I just collapsed at the first sight of struggle.
Now, I'm a few weeks shy of 18 - and I basically don't have a future. My grades are shit, and I don't care anymore. My dreams of graduating early through busting out all my classes have turned into legitimate considerations of dropping out. I'm not completely fucked in the grades department, but the other things I have to do before I graduate are going to be impossible, because I have literally no work ethic (this comment is probably more work I've done in school for the past two weeks we were present).
Everyone around me is completely fine - talking about the college they're going to and how they're already accepted and know what they're taking. Meanwhile, I'm not even sure if I'll still be in school at the end of this month. There's so much backlogged work that I have to take care of. There's so much stuff ahead of me that needs to get done. However, I have no skills that will help me get them done. I don't have disipline. I don't have work ethic. Hell - at this point, I don't even really have the will or desire to continue on.
If I learned how to work a long time ago, I would probably be much successful - and happier.
But you have most of your life ahead of you. Just because you buggered things up for now does not mean you can't have a good future. It just means you will have to do things in your own time rather than everyone else's.
I dropped out of school, but put myself through college twice; once in my 20s and once in my 30s. I got distinctions both times. Do what you want to do, and if you don't know what that is, do something that you tolerate and that brings in the money while you ponder on it. Worked for me. :)
That it did not matter what I did through out life, but what I didn't do.
I think for me it was that you have a finite amount of family, and they'll be taken from you with time. You have to appreciate them while they are there.
School is important.
Being around a good group of friends is priceless. After college, everyone moved away, and I've never found the same connection again.
That time, not money, is the most valuable commodity. Followed closely by food and water.
What about health?