Some advice from parents would be great

lbj
Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:13:42 +0000

If any of you parents have ever dealt with this or have any magically therapeutic responses that would be excellent.

I’m going through some pretty tough times mentally right now. I just seem to have very little self-confidence in any part of my life. In high school I was generally a very confident person, always felt like I had a positive future to look forward to regardless of what my life was like at the time.

But after a year of college, my life seems to have turned around completely, and the wrong way. I go to a top five LAC but I only got a 3.29 GPA–unless I can bring that up quickly, there go all of my post-undergrad options. I can’t even find a summer job around here, where unemployment is in the teens and climbing quickly. Nobody wants to hire somebody who will be leaving in two to three months. I live so far away from the financial and political centers of the country that it is difficult to find internships in my area of interest yet still live at home.

I don’t have the financial resources to be able to do things that other students do–travel, volunteer overseas, take summer language classes, intern in Washington, so instead I’m stuck here. I feel like I’m living two lives, one at school that I love with great friends who are amazing people and I love spending time with, and another with a bunch of dead-end losers from my hometown in the summer who would love nothing more than to get pass-out drunk 6 days a week. And these are the so-called ‘best students’ that go to our state flagship and other colleges.

It is becoming ever clearer to me that my high school didn’t prepare me very well considering that I only got a 3.29, something that just makes me even more depressed. I guess I just worry for my future and what I will be able to do with my life. I love the school that I go to and I learn a great deal there, but I am still very insecure about my abilities, particularly when I hear “Why didn’t you get into an Ivy League school” from my family all the time.

Not really sure what the point of all of this is, but sorry about the length and it feels good to get it off my chest.