Why do people just not care about high school?

romanigypsyeyes
Tue, 03 Dec 2013 21:17:39 +0000

Anecdote:

I graduated with my four year degree after doing pretty well in high school (high GPA, mid-30s ACT, slew of APs, whatever). I graduated with my BA and BS and moved back home to go to grad school (it’s a commutable distance). I called up some close friends from high school and asked if they wanted to rent out my house with me. They jumped on board.

They are:
-A regional managed at a national fast food place. No, it’s not glamorous BUT she gets paid about what I’ll make my first few years with my MPH from a prestigious university only a few years earlier. She was one of my best friends in high school. She had about a whopping 1.x GPA and ended up dropping out and getting her GED later on.

-A chef and kitchen manager at a very nice local restaurant who already makes more than I probably ever will. He lives with me because he didn’t want to live by himself and preferred a house to an apartment. He basically only passed high school because I did most of his homework for him junior and senior years. I think he had a whopping 2.1 when he graduated.

-My fiance who has graduated with a BA works part time jobs at a dog kennel and as a care taker for special needs children. He makes enough that we pay our bills, but just barely. Part of that is because I made him take whatever job was first offered to him- we needed the money! But partially because there just aren’t a lot of full time jobs around here for people without experience.

My point? Some people just hit their stride later in life. If you had told me that roommate A would be doing anything other than flipping burgers (no, she doesn’t work at McDonalds), I’d have looked at you like you have two heads. Instead, she has a 401k, a decently nice (new) car, and a good, secure job. But, she was one of those slackers in high school. Hell, she had to retake earth science 3 times! Roommate B we all knew would be successful, but only if you were his friend. If you saw him in class, you’d probably see him as a slacker (which he was), but is actually very intelligent. My fiance had a 4.0 in high school (unweighted) and is doing the worst out of all of us. So… things can be deceiving ;)