Advise for a high school senior going to college soon

[Pox]

I’m a high school senior that is going to college soon, and idk wtf I’m gonna do there. I’ve never been the academically competitive type and I had a sort of bipolar grades in high school (mental issues). One semester I get a 96 for my chemistry class or physics, the next I skip almost all of the classes because i dread of being in school so much. Besides education I don’t really got much going on for me either. I’ve never learned those skills like how to play a piano, martial arts, chess, etc as a kid, I spend most of my time playing video games or consuming other medias. I need advice on career paths, life skills, priorities, whatever y’all think is good for me

[Leo Gura]

You need to figure out your life purpose and career.

What are you passions?

[Ayham]

Nice to meet you, I'm the same

It's all pretty confusing and overwhelming, I have been into personal development, philosophy and spirituality ever since I was 12, I know that's what I like, but I'm trying to find a mix of practicality and what I like, doing something practical and this stuff on the side until it makes me money.

Though lately I have been fascinated by science a lot (I'm aware of the epistemological limitations) and I am thinking I could get into medical school and become a psychiatrist especially since medical school is free here.

The point is, it matters more how you imagine your life 10 years down the road, focus on that vision and work your way down.

Like I have a natural instinct to say things like: oh go read 300 books and master kriya yoga and lift weights and get healthy and work on your life purpose 

But what I am working towards is different from what you want to work towards

 

I understand how difficult and overwhelming it is with so many options and feeling lost, it's either following the normal path of miserable practicality, or taking the risk of becoming creative and passionate, I am personally trying to balance it out.

[Bobby_2021]

Generally speaking, go for college only if you are interested in research. Not just for the sake of a degree. 

For skill based jobs, you mostly don't need college with a few exceptions like Doctors, Lawyers etc. 

So see for yourself if you actually get value from college. The chances are that you working on yourself for those 4 years could yield greater returns. 

Exception apply to all these. Make an evaluation taking all these into account. 

[Carl-Richard]

What do you like to do?

[Pox]

On 3/18/2024 at 1:29 AM, Leo Gura said:

You need to figure out your life purpose and career.

What are you passions?

I have a deep love for video games, that’ll always stay with me

[Pox]

On 3/18/2024 at 6:29 PM, Carl-Richard said:

What do you like to do?

Recently I’ve been lifting a lot and trying to lose weight, so it helps me to stay sane working on a goal

[ted73104]

I wish I thought really hard about the questions you're thinking about right now before I went into college. In Taiwan, a college degree is a must if you want to get into any decent corporate job, at least it was 20 years ago. I hope things are not like this from where you are, that major companies would only recruit you if you graduated from a decent school with a specific degree for example in computer programming. I think there should be more high income skills to learn other than just tech in the United States.

If I could start over, I would focus more on my social life in college where there are plenty of opportunities to meet people. Social skills are just so beneficial in the long run in almost any area. Enter a club, learn how to hold various events. I would also learn how to invest, and learn about obtaining a healthier lifestyle instead of just counter striking or world of warcrafting though the night. Come to think of it, school grades were the least important during college. The professors couldn't teach me anything that would amount to being useful in the actual work field. And after my first job, no one even cared where I studied when I got my second job, they only cared if I could do the job. And you mostly learn how to do the job after you get the job.

Before I went to college, I thought that the classes and programs in school would take care of everything for me. How idiotic that notion was. I was fortunate only because I studied electric engineering and the college degree got me a mediocre job that did point me in the right direction corporate ladder-wise. I can be very certain that the college courses are going to teach you a lot of knowledge in the field of academics that would probably still prepare you for nothing in the jobs market. Better to spend your time being an intern at Google or Microsoft.

However I still think the four years in college would be worth it. That's the best time to meet lifelong friends and even partners. It's the best time to tryout different areas of knowledge and see which ones you resonate with most. Although college can't train you directly for your actual job, it is still some form of training, maybe you could see it as learning how to learn or train yourself. And the degree still opens a lot of doors for you, at least when you're a beginner.

In college, many students play video games all the time. The other folks go partying all the time. People get addicted to stuff because college just throws a lot of exams and assignments at you only to make you study hard. If you don't know what you want or what you're doing, you could get lost in a mediocre lifestyle real quickly. It seems like you're a very capable person, because you can get good grades whenever you can focus. I think that is a promising attribute to have. Only thing you need to do is to gradually list out the basic goals you want to achieve after you get into college, and keep things practical, no need to make an impact. Just go directly after what you want and live in the moment.

[BipolarGrowth]

Make money and invest it. Lift weights for strength and hypertrophy. Meditate. Either take college seriously or don’t go at all and start a career now. Work hard and give your all to whatever tasks you spend your time on. 
 

I used college as a social experience and didn’t apply myself as I did in high school because the sense of freedom was too enticing. I think this helped heal some social issues I had, so it wasn’t a total loss. Regardless, if I had started investing real estate at 18 instead of 22, I would probably not be forced to work to cover my living expenses whereas now that goal is likely several years away. 

[mmKay]

On 23/3/2024 at 4:45 PM, Pox said:

I have a deep love for video games, that’ll always stay with me

If that's your serious answer for the entire question we can't help you a lot here. Experience and live life more and be on the lookout for what sparks your interests. Play around with them and decide if you want to deepen into it or try something else

You can explore online for subjects and activities that catch your attention. Go try those

Your problem seems to be lack of real life experiences to choose from and that's why you don't know where you want your life to go.

Take this seriously. Most people don't have the luxury to architect their future life's from a young age and just barely scrape by and get handcuffed by life's obligations before they even realize

Edited March 30, 2024 by mmKay