Growing Pains

[eleanor]

[color=dimgray] So, I'm a junior. Which basically means I'm going through the worst year of high school, har har. [strike]As far as I know I'm going to get a 1 on my physics exam.[/strike] All the worry from APs to SATs to getting into college is really digging in on me now, as a lot of decision making and intense studying is right around the corner.

Everything I hear from college acceptance rates to the amazing background that too many students seem to have makes me (and plenty of my friends) stressed about how well we're performing and how it's too late to make any drastic changes to our GPAs. Recently I've spend times comparing everything about me to my friend when I found out her top college choice was the same as mine.

It sucks, really. I hate how it's getting harder to get into top colleges every year, and admission rates are going down every year.

So, anybody else going through a bit of a tough spot due to growing up? [/color]

[Aberinkula]

[COLOR=Blue]The pressures of relationship and responsability.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=DimGray]My pearents let me do stuff don't get me wrong, but they over protect me. I want to go to town, she complains about something, it bugs the **** out of my soul!!! Such things have gotten me in trouble with the band I'm in. Death Vaprs (or DVP) Is one of my top priorities.

Plus, I don't get to see my girlfriend much. Her mother's boyfriend lives in the town next to mine, yet it's not the same without her here, plus it's made me make some bad choices in my life. (Don't want to tell them.)[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Blue]Plus, my future. Not m,y job, but myself. Still judging on teh smoking and drinking thing. But hey, tis' my bdoy, not someone else's.[/COLOR]

[Farto the Magic]

[QUOTE=ForgotteÑ-HerÖ][COLOR=Blue]The pressures of relationship and responsability.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=DimGray]My pearents let me do stuff don't get me wrong, but they over protect me. I want to go to town, she complains about something, it bugs the **** out of my soul!!! Such things have gotten me in trouble with the band I'm in. Death Vaprs (or DVP) Is one of my top priorities.

Plus, I don't get to see my girlfriend much. Her mother's boyfriend lives in the town next to mine, yet it's not the same without her here, plus it's made me make some bad choices in my life. (Don't want to tell them.)[/COLOR][/QUOTE]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][COLOR=DarkGreen]
Suck. But hey, at least you have a girlfriend. I'm in college and I have poor taste in women. I generally want to pick the one that is the hardest to attain or maintain (in the most chivalrous sense, I assure you). The current one may very well work out, if either I don't screwup, or the other guy she likes keeps on doing what he's doing.

My grades are mediocre and I have one class that's kicking me in the nuts daily. I could drop it, but its required for my major. Its pretty much a sucktacular class and its mildly interesting, but its difficult. I just need to learn how to study appropraitely for this kind of crap.

Of course, life could be worse. You could be bedridden or morbidly obese or have cancer or genital warts.

As for colleges, keep looking. Some of them have lax standards.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Retribution]

[quote name='Lunox][color=dimgray']So, anybody else going through a bit of a tough spot due to growing up? [/color][/quote]
[size=1]Yeah, definitely. I think we already chatted about it, but I'll share it again.

Basically second semester of sophomore year I cracked under the workload and let my GPA plummet. I felt overwhelmed, overstressed, and generally hated the monotony that was my life. I sucked it up, limped through the rest of the school year, and came back junior year with a better mindset.

Junior year, I did what everyone else didn't -- [i]completely ignored SATs.[/i] As a result, I had more time and energy to focus on other things. My grades were drastically improved, etc etc. The end of junior year is always a ***** on wheels, so my advice to you would be focus on APs, and worry about SATs later. You still have like four more test dates to go. Study for SAT over the summer, not now when there's a lot of other stuff on your plate. But over the summer, hit the SAT books hard or it won't do anything.

Right now I'm just kinda coasting to victory -- 20something more days until high school ends. Only one more paper + AP exams, then I'm out. So nothing too stressful.[/size]

[Boo]

[size=1]Well, picking a study is a rather large pain. I picked the wrong study last year ("Digital Communication") and ended up dropping out halfway this year. The study was horrid, and at least half of the people in my year thought it was. But most of them just wanted to finish this year before dropping out, so they'd get their "[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propedeuse][b]propedeuse[/b][/url]". I know I didn't have enough stimulation to actually make it through the year so I didn't even try.

Relationship wise... well... Perhaps it's best to sing a song regarding that issue.

[i]Lights fade out and a pool of light appears on stage. The orchestra sets in.[/i] 'When I was seventeen it was a very good year.'

Though maybe this year is a bit too well for me, because now I'm having trouble deciding which girl to actually go for. On one side there's a girl from Germany, who has a lot of the same taste and everything, but she lives waaay in the farthest corner of her darn country. On the other side there's the girl who lives nearby (well, about a half hour ride), thus the a bit more 'realistic' choice. Of course, I've never chosen for a 'realistic' choice before as I despise the term, but perhaps I should consider it once.

Oh well, I always have a back up plan, because I'm [i]that cool[/i].[/size]

[James]

[QUOTE=ForgotteÑ-HerÖ][COLOR=Blue]The pressures of relationship and responsability.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=DimGray]My pearents let me do stuff don't get me wrong, but they over protect me. I want to go to town, she complains about something, it bugs the **** out of my soul!!! Such things have gotten me in trouble with the band I'm in. Death Vaprs (or DVP) Is one of my top priorities.

Plus, I don't get to see my girlfriend much. Her mother's boyfriend lives in the town next to mine, yet it's not the same without her here, plus it's made me make some bad choices in my life. (Don't want to tell them.)[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Blue]Plus, my future. Not m,y job, but myself. Still judging on teh smoking and drinking thing. But hey, tis' my bdoy, not someone else's.[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

[font=arial]Without sounding too much like a parent...there are a few things here that really stand out to me. Your band is one of your top priorities? Is it right up there with your education?

Also, I think one mistake a lot of people make is to blame others for their actions (or to put responsibility in the hands of others). Are you saying that the absence of your girlfriend "made" you do some bad things?

As for the latter stuff...I wouldn't presume to tell you what to do in terms of drugs and stuff but if you're only a young teenager I think it'd at least be worth weighing up how these things impact your life.

That your parents let you go out at all is a good thing - I'm sure they care about you very much and want you to focus on the important/beneficial things in your life.

For those of us who are adults, I can say that there will be worse things you will go through in your life than being without your girlfriend for a little while. If you use those circumstances as an excuse to do destructive things...you won't get very far at all.

I know that teenagers go through these things in general - there's always a lot of turbulence in those years. I guess I just noticed a few things in your comments that seemed like they needed some kind of response. I hope it doesn't come off as harsh - it's just that when you're an adult and you get past that stage, you tend to look back with a new degree of clarity (some don't, but I think most do).[/font]

[Rachmaninoff]

[quote name='Lunox][color=dimgray']I hate how it's getting harder to get into top colleges every year, and admission rates are going down every year.[/color][/quote]That I couldn't say since I'm currently working towards my Masters so getting in at this point isn't really a problem for me. However I do know that if you have several top colleges in mind and you don't get in the first try, especially when it's a college that gets more admissions than they have room for students. I'd try for a more local college to start with.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is you can also check with the school to see just what they take as far as transfer credits go, I've got plenty of friends who went to the community college first got some of the basic stuff out of the way and then transfered to a different college later. Plus if you had bad grades in High School, working on getting better grades for when you transfer makes a difference. At least here it does.

[Aberinkula]

[QUOTE=James][font=arial]Without sounding too much like a parent...there are a few things here that really stand out to me. Your band is one of your top priorities? Is it right up there with your education?

Also, I think one mistake a lot of people make is to blame others for their actions (or to put responsibility in the hands of others). Are you saying that the absence of your girlfriend "made" you do some bad things?

As for the latter stuff...I wouldn't presume to tell you what to do in terms of drugs and stuff but if you're only a young teenager I think it'd at least be worth weighing up how these things impact your life.

That your parents let you go out at all is a good thing - I'm sure they care about you very much and want you to focus on the important/beneficial things in your life.

For those of us who are adults, I can say that there will be worse things you will go through in your life than being without your girlfriend for a little while. If you use those circumstances as an excuse to do destructive things...you won't get very far at all.

I know that teenagers go through these things in general - there's always a lot of turbulence in those years. I guess I just noticed a few things in your comments that seemed like they needed some kind of response. I hope it doesn't come off as harsh - it's just that when you're an adult and you get past that stage, you tend to look back with a new degree of clarity (some don't, but I think most do).[/font][/QUOTE]

[COLOR=Blue]Nah, I don't find it harsh. It's called brutal honesty. Bt I see your points. As for the girlfriend thing, she wasn't going out with me when the bad thing happened. It's really my fault for not listening to my friends. They wanted me to just ask her. And after all that, it only took the simple question. So your friends have a big impact on your mental health! (health unit)[/COLOR]

[QUOTE=Farto the Magic]
[COLOR=darkGreen]Suck. But hey, at least you have a girlfriend. I'm in college and I have poor taste in women. I generally want to pick the one that is the hardest to attain or maintain (in the most chivalrous sense, I assure you). The current one may very well work out, if either I don't screwup, or the other guy she likes keeps on doing what he's doing.

My grades are mediocre and I have one class that's kicking me in the nuts daily. I could drop it, but its required for my major. Its pretty much a sucktacular class and its mildly interesting, but its difficult. I just need to learn how to study appropraitely for this kind of crap.

Of course, life could be worse. You could be bedridden or morbidly obese or have cancer or genital warts.

As for colleges, keep looking. Some of them have lax standards.[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

[COLOR=DimGray]Thank god I don't have genital warts! But shcool isn't one of my biggest issues. All I have to do is start reading form the books. I'm a smart student, but that sometimes makes me do stupid things. Math used to be my strong point, so was sceince. But lately they've been lagging.[/COLOR]

[eleanor]

[QUOTE=Retribution][size=1]
Junior year, I did what everyone else didn't -- [i]completely ignored SATs.[/i] As a result, I had more time and energy to focus on other things. My grades were drastically improved, etc etc. The end of junior year is always a ***** on wheels, so my advice to you would be focus on APs, and worry about SATs later. You still have like four more test dates to go. Study for SAT over the summer, not now when there's a lot of other stuff on your plate. But over the summer, hit the SAT books hard or it won't do anything.
[/size][/QUOTE]

[color=dimgray]***** on wheels. That [i]is[/i] a pretty good description of junior year.

But, yeah. I have been ignoring the SATs completely. The thing is I have to get through my SAT subject tests, which leaves me only one more chance to hit the books during the summer and either do amazing on the SATs or somehow bomb it again.[/color]

[quote=Rachmaninoff]
Anyway, what I'm getting at is you can also check with the school to see just what they take as far as transfer credits go, I've got plenty of friends who went to the community college first got some of the basic stuff out of the way and then transfered to a different college later. Plus if you had bad grades in High School, working on getting better grades for when you transfer makes a difference. At least here it does.[/quote]

[color=dimgray] It's just that settling for a college I know I'd get into (in my case it's UGA or Emory) bothers me. I want to get the hell out of Georgia, mostly. I'm just stressed that there's a huge chance I won't get into my top choice school and I'll have to settle for some other university that hasn't caught my eye as much as NYU has.

More so it's just hearing about these amazing students who aren't getting into [i]their[/i] top colleges. A girl I know basically had the whole package: 2400 SAT, 3rd in class, 12 APs, 4.0 GPA, plus multiple leaderships in extracurriculars got rejected from Columbia. Seriously, if that wasn't good enough for them, I don't where the hell I'm supposed to go.

It's also frustrating that the people I surround myself with are the kind that don't ever study and have 100+ GPAs while taking a rigorous schedule. I'm in the corner taking the same schedule but busting my *** off only to get an 85 on the AP Physics test.

One of my friends got a 2360 on her first try, and then put me down by saying that studying for the SATs is like cheating, because it's "supposed to be natural intelligence". I know that's a bunch of BS, but after years of being around these freakish and lazy geniuses it's really gets to you. [/color]

[Rachmaninoff]

[QUOTE=Lunox][color=dimgray] It's just that settling for a college I know I'd get into (in my case it's UGA or Emory) bothers me. I want to get the hell out of Georgia, mostly. I'm just stressed that there's a huge chance I won't get into my top choice school and I'll have to settle for some other university that hasn't caught my eye as much as NYU has.
[/color][/QUOTE]I know what you mean, in my case it wasn't too bad since I didn't have a huge desire to get out of the state I currently live in, even though there are much better music programs at other universities.[quote name='Lunox][color=dimgray'] One of my friends got a 2360 on her first try, and then put me down by saying that studying for the SATs is like cheating, because it's "supposed to be natural intelligence". I know that's a bunch of BS, but after years of being around these freakish and lazy geniuses it's really gets to you. [/color][/quote]No offense to your friend, but if they are saying garbage like that to you, they aren't much of a friend. If it was 'natural intelligence' as they put it, we wouldn't need schools since we would already know the information we are learning. BS indeed.

Anyway, either way I hope you do get into the school you are aiming for. ;)

[Drix D'Zanth]

[QUOTE=Lunox][color=dimgray]
[color=dimgray] It's just that settling for a college I know I'd get into (in my case it's UGA or Emory) bothers me. I want to get the hell out of Georgia, mostly. I'm just stressed that there's a huge chance I won't get into my top choice school and I'll have to settle for some other university that hasn't caught my eye as much as NYU has.

More so it's just hearing about these amazing students who aren't getting into [i]their[/i] top colleges. A girl I know basically had the whole package: 2400 SAT, 3rd in class, 12 APs, 4.0 GPA, plus multiple leaderships in extracurriculars got rejected from Columbia. Seriously, if that wasn't good enough for them, I don't where the hell I'm supposed to go.

It's also frustrating that the people I surround myself with are the kind that don't ever study and have 100+ GPAs while taking a rigorous schedule. I'm in the corner taking the same schedule but busting my *** off only to get an 85 on the AP Physics test.

One of my friends got a 2360 on her first try, and then put me down by saying that studying for the SATs is like cheating, because it's "supposed to be natural intelligence". I know that's a bunch of BS, but after years of being around these freakish and lazy geniuses it's really gets to you. [/color][/QUOTE]

Don't sweat your friend, study for the test and rock it!

As far as colleges are concerned, I wouldn't fret too much. The college ranking system in the States is usually put on by the Princeton Review or US News and World. This is a little inside secret- ranking systems are pretty bunk. Most colleges have a huge portion of their score ranked by their peers. That is, presidents are asked by Princeton review to rank other schools that they aren't obligated to know much about.

That's right, a good bit of the ranking is subjective heresay!

You will get into College. It may not be your first choice, second choice, third choice. I know how it is, and I know how you feel. Colleges are tough to get into. Med Schools and Grad programs are a freaking crapshoot! But most colleges want a broad range of students with different backgrounds, you must have something that seperates you from the cookie-cutter success student. Just don't give up! If you don't get into your dream college find a school you've never heard of. Look into it (a smaller liberal arts university, for instance. Or a state school on the other side of the country). Who knows, it might end up being a better school than you could have guessed! If not, work your butt off your first year and transfer to another school!

If you invest yourself, you will get a quality education at most schools, and i would venture to say that a Harvard or Columbia isn't going to offer you anything you can't offer yourself (undergraduate education is about discovery, graduate programs are another story)!

Good luck, and enjoy your college years!

[Roleni-Chan]

Im already a senior, at least six weeks till I graduate. And 11th grade is one of the worst, but never put yourself in a bad thought. It would lead you to be less confident towards yourself and that can put you down. Im taking some classes in college to get ahead, Im going to community because I cant afford it and I feel like Im not ready. Though its natural also stressing out, makes it a challenge, once you conquer it, you feel stronger ^^!

[Farto the Magic]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS][COLOR=DarkGreen]Dude, I just remembered this. I took the ACTs, but I think the same principle applies. The questions will be stated in such a way that, if you can comprehend what they're asking by the time the question is over, the answer is obvious. Oh, and get a good night's sleep and drink plenty of Redbull. That stuff saved my college career.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[BlueMoon]

Right now I'm pretty stressed, actually.

I admit, I've always been lazy. But I'm the type that can be lazy about anything and still pull out ahead *ducks rocks* But this time...well, I think I've honestly met my match.

I just spent two years in community college. It was wonderful. Amazing, even. I had wonderful teachers, wonderful classes, I decided more or less what I wanted to do. So now time to transfer to a university to finish education. I want to go to Windsor University, as a friend of mine lives there. But that is in Canada. I am in Michigan. This is turning into a much bigger problem than I thought it would.

They need a thousand pieces of paperwork, it seems. They need proof I can pay for college, a visa, a passport, my course descriptions, other things I can't remember. And my college isn't willing to help, because apparently America doesn't like funding international students. Or the loan I took out doesn't. Or something. And Windsor thinks they do and argh. And I don't want my two years of college to go to waste, so I'm scared that they'll reject my classes. And I can't stand dorms but there is one building that I could probably love but it's limited and I need to get all this done first before I can apply.

I've been in tears over this. I'm not even worried about my classes right now. I'm just scared my only plan for the future might be screwed. I don't have a back-up at all.

...As for personal life, eh, I ranted enough ^^;; But it felt nice to get it out.

[AzureWolf]

[COLOR=maroon]Lunox, I've been in your situation, with a school I was dying to go to. I didn't get in, but 2+2=4 whether you go to Harvard University or Skank College.

College is what you make of it, what you make yourself get out of it, and there is little (VERY LITTLE) effect which college you go to has on who you become. Do you think a Johns Hopkins dropout is any better than a Florida State dropout? How about all those people who earned Nobel Prizes and didn't attend Harvard?

School rankings are overrated: the degree you get at one school is no less worthless than a degree at some other school. When you interact with people post-college, you realize this fact because they're no smarter or dumber than you.

As far as those "perfect" students who don't get in, schools look for diversity these days. That's the key point: if you are a 4.0 bookworm with nothing "fresh" to bring to the school, that's much different than a 3.2 ex-LA gangmember who turned his life around and made his neighborhood a safer place for the sake of future generations (true example).[/COLOR]

[vegeta rocker]

I luckily got into my first choice, which is good because i had no second. lol

Man but i remember how stressful my senior was, I graduated in '03 and i remember it well.

But i honestly didn't know a thing about myself until i graduated. I am a very different person now.

You honestly learn more about yourself the older you get, that doesn't change no matter how many years pass.

I hope everything works out well for you Lunox!

(anime glomps you then runs away)

[Panda]

On the college note: Starting my junior year I started taking classes at the community college after my regular high school classes in addition to working more than part-time. I did this my senior year too. It made for very busy days but it was well worth it. Yeah, I'm a nerd. So basically I graduated high school and college with my AA at the same time. I then became a transfer student and not a "new applicant" since I already had an AA. If things are still the same as when I was going through college then transfer students continuing on with their education are in a different acceptance pool for admission. Things may have changed since then but back in the day it was much easier for those with some college under their belts to get into the schools they wanted. It may be something to look into. :catgirl:

As for current growing pains, I would have to say it's the constant pressure from friends and family to have kids. This has been going on for over a decade. I know I am getting older but I don't want to have them. I've never wanted to have kids. Now that I am on the sickly side and on nasty medication that can cause all kinds of terrible birth defects I REALLY don't want to have kids. Yet even with explaining this people still say I should have a baby. Wah?

It's kind of funny how the growing pains never really stop, they just change into new ones.