#im so fucking stressed that i almost cried about what the drama can result in

[dishsaop]

to all you scared and stressed high school kids

its okay. when youre out of high school - and you will be - none of it has to matter anymore. the drama, the culture, the toxicity and shitty relationships, the obsession with sports and popularity contests? there will always be bad people, there will always be stupid drama and bad opinions, but... youre gonna have a freedom to walk away from it or at least ignore it that you dont have in high school. you can keep the friends you want to keep with just a little bit of effort, and everything else just... you can choose to not let it matter. i havent seriously thought about high school until today when i was talking to my kid brother.

grades matter but they dont matter as much as everyone says they do. you have so many options besides college, and even if college is your dream goal? so you dont make it into the top ivy league school. thats okay. theres nothing shameful about community college, nothing at all. hell, its almost always so much smarter to go to a community college than blow hundredd of thousands of dollars on something youre not sure about or cant afford.

we live in a culture thats so insanely unhealthily obsessed with grades - where As are the only thing that count for anything. but im in a pretty good college in a fairly good program and yknow what? no one asks what your grades were in high school. nobody. its just... you should work hard, yes, you should put in effort, you should try to learn but hell, yall, its not worth killing yourself over and i p r o m i s e that.

and on that note - a good work ethic is worth so much more than an A. a kid who works hard and gets a C is gonna be happier and healthier in the future than one who gets an A and doesnt try. that kid with an A is gonna enter the world and not know how to do shit. and the kid whos made an effort will roll their sleeves up and figure it out cos thats what theyve been doing their whole life. please please please dont kill yourself over grades i cried myself to death after i got a C in a class once and its mattered literally 0% guys.

ap classes and honors classes or whatever are neat, yes - its cool to be challenged and its cool to learn more and if they get u out of a college class or two thats rad! but they arent the saving grace everyone says they are. theyre slightly harder classes. thats it. they arent god himself coming down to personally raise you above the common masses. if you arent in ap classes youre fine, its okay, its all gonna work out and its no slight against you.

speaking of. the AP test, the SAT, theyre fuckin rigged. they cost so much to take and then rich people have their kids take thousands of dollars worth of classes to raise their scores to get into better classes. literally. my mom was an AP tutor and the amount of money people spend on just a few points is heartbreaking. these tests are one way to measure one kind of ability, and even then the results are skewed as fuck because of socioeconomic differences. if you get a high score thats great! legit, im proud of you. but if you dont... its fine, its okay, i promise you its okay.

i know every situation is different, but... no matter what you do after high school, it can get better. it might take a while. but high school isnt your whole world. theres so much more out there for you and these are only a few years out of a long life. so much good can happen to you! theres a whole world outside of these walls! you just gotta make it through a few years and i am so proud of you.

#this is very rambling but im just remembering how afraid i was in high school #and how many more frightened kids i see #and like... its okay. it all works out #you just gotta keep going #m text