Why I Regret Dropping Out of High School

High school: the (least) most wonderful time of our lives. Sure, for some, high school is four years full of new friends and retaining knowledge. Yet, for others, it’s a dreadful time full of bullying, complications, and being defined an outcast. My problem: I despised my school and pretty much everyone in it. But I loved to learn. See my predicament? Now throughout high school, I was in fact considered a “popular kid,” but I still got bullied. I wasn’t like everyone else... I was pretty and genuinely a smart girl. Nonetheless, many people absolutely hated my guts, and I had no clue as to why. But that’s not what this article is about.

High school really does fly by. It was the summer before my senior year when I decided I was going to finish through a home school, literally the dumbest decision of my ENTIRE life. By this time I was emancipated (read all about that in my living alone at 17 article) and making my own choices. I had no one to inform me about my decision. So fast forward to the beginning of the school year. I had paid my dues and gotten the books to be a home schooled student. Keep in mind, I was 17 years old, living alone, making eight dollars an hour. I had to pay my bills, rent, car note, and groceries, then on top of all that I had to pay $125 a month just to stay in the home schooling program. Needless to say, it got to be too much. I couldn’t afford it all on my own and had no assistance. I asked my parents for help but due to the fact they weren’t very happy with my decision, it was something I was going to have to figure out, alone.

Well, after I decided I had to have a place to stay, food to eat, and a way to get to work, there was only one thing I could afford to lose. School. So I dropped out of school, got an age waiver to take the GED, passed it, and now here I am.

I am now an 18-year-old that does have her high school equivalency, but I just feel as if I’m always being looked down upon. Maybe that’s just a part of the fact of getting your GED. I feel as if people look at me like I am nothing but a delinquent that didn’t have it in her to finish schooling, but that has nothing to do with it. I was smart enough, and I did indeed have every intention to finish... I just couldn’t deal with the bullying and I was more inter in making money. Everyone has their own reasons for dropping out, some may make more sense than others. Sure, there are plenty of people that drop out just because they want to, but that doesn’t make it OK for people to look down on the ones of us that do.

Life without a diploma is hard. Sure, I can go to college now but you just get treated differently. Colleges are less likely to accept you due to the fact you couldn’t complete high school, and they have every right to assume you won’t finish college. My parents still are disappointed with my choice, and my sister tends to rub it in my face now. Do I regret it? Absolutely. Do I wish someone was there to stop me and maybe give me a little direction? Of course. But I can’t change it now. I know it doesn’t make me any less intelligent or reliable. Will people continue to look down on me as if I am? Probably. But it really stinks to have this label for the rest of my life.