Lifestyle 2022-23 School Year Discussion Thread

[bdt2002]

How's it going, everyone? Many of us younger users are in the process of going back into school this month, and I'd like to give us a space to talk about the upcoming year ahead of us. I'm keeping this introduction very short because there's really not that much for me to go over. The one thing I will say is, for your sake and for the moderators here, please do not post any details about where you live in real life or where you actually go to school at (that is, your school and/or school district's real name). I cannot state the importance of this one rule enough, but if we're all willing to follow that alongside the usual Cong. rules, then I think we should be fine.

(If anything happens to this thread, I accept full responsibility. I apologize in advance if this thread's creation violates any of said rules.)

What kinds of things can we discuss here?

-The types of classes you're taking, and/or your academic interests
-Updates on how your school year is going
-What kinds of activities you're involved with during the school year
-What "era" of school you're currently in (based on age, answers may very by location, country, etc.)
-What kinds of things you like to do when not working on schoolwork
-Any athletic programs at your school (whether or not you play for any of them)
-Anything else school-related that I missed that falls within the rules

What kinds of things should we avoid discussing? (I will report replies that violate these, with the exception of that last one. I would assume the moderators have that one under control already.)

-Exact names and/or addresses of students and staff, as well as where you or other people live and/or attend school at
-Your school's worldviews, beliefs, etc.
-Anything regarding your school's financial situation(s)
-Anything that violates existing Cong. rules, like all other threads

I think that's everything, so happy new school year to anyone who's... well... excited for school. Most people I've met tend to be stressed out about it. Oh well.

 

[DuGuo]

I will enter a new school in about ten days. As a Chinese, I wonder if only Chinese students in the world need to participate in military training ?
After becoming a high school student, I am afraid I will leave smogon temporarily because I have to live on campus and have no access to electronic equipment. I'll try to bring it in if I can lol.

 

[antemortem]

I will enter a new school in about ten days. As a Chinese, I wonder if only Chinese students in the world need to participate in military training ?
After becoming a high school student, I am afraid I will leave smogon temporarily because I have to live on campus and have no access to electronic equipment. I'll try to bring it in if I can lol.

I’m in my grad school cohort with a 32 year old man from Israel; we’ve had several conversations about his obligatory military service after high school. It’s definitely not a thing anymore in the United States, and this was the first I’d heard of it outside of my provincial perspective, but I’m sure it’s more common than we assume.

How do you feel about having to train for something you (I assume) don’t want to willingly participate in when it’s over??

 

[DuGuo]

his obligatory military service after high school

Oh, our country is different from some other places in the world. Due to the huge population base, there are not many people who perform military service. But we have to participate in military training, which is not actually a kind of military service.

How do you feel about having to train for something you (I assume) don’t want to willingly participate in when it’s over??

In fact, for me, it was at the beginning, LOL

 

[Pemderp63]

I'll be starting my second year of college at the end of September. Due to mental health issues I had to drop all of my classes twice. The much bigger workload in college is hard to manage. It doesn't help that I major in Japanese, an extremely difficult language with even harder classes. As a result, I'm planning on skipping Japanese 102 until I'm used to college. In the meantime I'll take courses to get some credits and study the language in my free time.

 

[antemortem]

Oh, our country is different from some other places in the world. Due to the huge population base, there are not many people who perform military service. But we have to participate in military training, which is not actually a kind of military service.

What’s the point in the training if the service isn’t guaranteed? To create a standing militia, basically?

I’d be mfin pissed at my country if I had to do this lol, if it‘s possible to be more jaded by a country than I already am

I'll be starting my second year of college at the end of September. Due to mental health issues I had to drop all of my classes twice. The much bigger workload in college is hard to manage. It doesn't help that I major in Japanese, an extremely difficult language with even harder classes. As a result, I'm planning on skipping Japanese 102 until I'm used to college. In the meantime I'll take courses to get some credits and study the language in my free time.

Why Japanese as a major in particular?

I had a friend in undergrad who was a double major in Acting + Japanese and she wasn’t miserable but she sure as hell didn’t have much of a social life. No judgement of course, I went through a period where I didnt have much of one myself and got great grades as a result, but she definitely came out on the other side wondering why she didn’t just pick one.

 

[bdt2002]

I'll be starting my second year of college at the end of September. Due to mental health issues I had to drop all of my classes twice. The much bigger workload in college is hard to manage. It doesn't help that I major in Japanese, an extremely difficult language with even harder classes. As a result, I'm planning on skipping Japanese 102 until I'm used to college. In the meantime I'll take courses to get some credits and study the language in my free time.

これが読めるということは、あなたは進歩しているということであり、あきらめるべきではありません！

...if this isn't an accurate translation, you can blame Google for that.

What’s the point in the training if the service isn’t guaranteed? To create a standing militia, basically?

I’d be mfin pissed at my country if I had to do this lol, if it‘s possible to be more jaded by a country than I already am

They need to have people trained in case they need back-ups, I guess...? Yeah, it's hard for me to think of an answer to this one.

 

[zee]

Schedule (Big)

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Taking linear algebra, discrete math, and differential equations this semester along with advanced algorithms to finish up my compsci minor. Might not be final final since it's still add/drop week but yeah. I took japanese 101 last fall but had to drop about halfway through because i had frequent doctors appointments in the afternoon when it was scheduled.

Today was the first day of classes and it went pretty well, so we'll see how things play out

 

[earl]

Was supposed to be leaving abroad to Japan 2 days from now but visa delays (program wide) have delayed it to a couple weeks from now. Currently have no idea if that means I start at that time or if I'm going online before then (I hope it's the former). Sort of sucks but at least I'm going after myriad covid delays.

PS: to aspiring Japanese takers, as a 300 level student: It doesn't get easier lol

 

[TheDraugr]

Here's something from another prospective: I'm a teacher

Substitute specifically. My first job is long-term special education (autism, high school) where I will teach self-contained classes. The thing is I don't know much about what I'll actually be teaching until tomorrow where I will also go over each student's case file. (I have access to those by law, though privacy restrictions apply so don't ask for specifics). If anyone has any questions about what it's like on the other side, I'll answer.

P.S. Don't go through my post history and fuck this up for me

 

[VOS Laika]

im leaving Macao for France to go in an boarding school due to me being a total asshole and getting kicked out of my school , parents are legitimaly very angry against me and they send me over there so that ill leave Macao forever , they dont want me back , i have some notions of French so itll be good and i can leave stuff like maths and bio to focus on my passions (music and history)

 

[bdt2002]

im leaving Macao for France to go in an boarding school due to me being a total asshole and getting kicked out of my school , parents are legitimaly very angry against me and they send me over there so that ill leave Macao forever , they dont want me back , i have some notions of French so itll be good and i can leave stuff like maths and bio to focus on my passions (music and history)

I have no idea why, but for some odd reason I'm picking up the vibe that whatever happened here wasn't entirely your fault. Either way, what's in the past is in the past. Maybe you'll find something else you're interested in over there, too. Sometimes it does take times of hardship to find what's best for us. I have faith things will turn out okay. Keep your head up high.

 

[Shedinja-43152]

I'm not that young but I will start study History in a federal University in October. The semester will start that late because of Coronavírus pandemic.

 

[DuGuo]

What’s the point in the training if the service isn’t guaranteed? To create a standing militia, basically?

I’d be mfin pissed at my country if I had to do this lol, if it‘s possible to be more jaded by a country than I already am

well, I think this is just to cultivate our willpower and cooperation

They need to have people trained in case they need back-ups, I guess...? Yeah, it's hard for me to think of an answer to this one.

I don't think it has anything to do with military service lol. Being a soldier here is voluntary, and military training is just to train our ability lol.

Due to the covid-19 epidemic, our school was delayed and the military training was cancelled. Now I am taking online classes at home.

 

[VOS Laika]

I have no idea why, but for some odd reason I'm picking up the vibe that whatever happened here wasn't entirely your fault. Either way, what's in the past is in the past. Maybe you'll find something else you're interested in over there, too. Sometimes it does take times of hardship to find what's best for us. I have faith things will turn out okay. Keep your head up high.

what happened was truly my fault , i kept fighting and shit so i totally am in favor of being kicked out , but thank you for your kind comment

 

[bdt2002]

Hey, everyone. So, a bit of an update on my school life right now...

It sucks. Or at least, it seems terrible.

School is a funny little thing. There's so much an education system can get right, but there's also a lot it can get wrong. I speak on behalf of American style education when I say this... I absolutely hate the way things have been here. In the midst of one of my worst mental health slumps in the past few months, I can say for certain that what I've been doing so far... or should I say, my lack of action, hasn't been helping me with anything I'll need to succeed. This morning, it really hit home when I got out of my methods of counseling class. For the first time, I found myself asking a question I never thought I'd say. Is this really the career path for me? And if not, what is?

College was never going to be easy for me to want to enjoy, let alone succeed in doing so. I don't want this post to be all bad news, but my lack of patience has really gotten to me these past few weeks. Just last night I had to force myself to turn in incomplete papers to start off an online class because of numerous unrelated factors, and during this morning's class I just mentioned, I most likely failed our first chapter quiz of the year because I was too distracted by everything else to even be able to study!

 

[Wildfiree]

I’m currently on the spring semester taking 3 classes but they are moving pretty fast as they are 8 week courses. I’m actually managing it better than I thought so I’m feeling pretty good about that.

 

[ChaosNinjaGaming]

I'm doing pretty well in my school, I've taken plenty of honors classes and I think they'll pay off very soon. As far as I'm aware, I've been number 1 in my school since I got there. I intend to try and become a video game developer or something related to technology in the future. If I'm lucky, I'll be going to another high school in my state that operates much more like a college with dorms and everything. My current school is kinda annoying, no clubs, student government, or cool events throughout the year. Sports aren't really my thing either. A lot of the kids at my school are also really annoying, though at least they aren't complete bullies or anything like that. Lastly, that new school I mentioned earlier is pretty far from home, so I'll be separated from my parents for weeks at a time if I end up going there. Hope you all have a good rest of the school year!

P.S. Despite my good grades in school, it turns out being smart there does NOT translate to being good at mons. Which might be a good thing because I don't need or want a large ego.

 

[Shedinja-43152]

I'm not that young but I will start study History in a federal University in October. The semester will start that late because of Coronavírus pandemic.

Now, this week, is the last week of semester and I get amazing notes in all disciplines :)

 

[ChaosNinjaGaming]

I'm doing pretty well in my school, I've taken plenty of honors classes and I think they'll pay off very soon. As far as I'm aware, I've been number 1 in my school since I got there. I intend to try and become a video game developer or something related to technology in the future. If I'm lucky, I'll be going to another high school in my state that operates much more like a college with dorms and everything. My current school is kinda annoying, no clubs, student government, or cool events throughout the year. Sports aren't really my thing either. A lot of the kids at my school are also really annoying, though at least they aren't complete bullies or anything like that. Lastly, that new school I mentioned earlier is pretty far from home, so I'll be separated from my parents for weeks at a time if I end up going there. Hope you all have a good rest of the school year!

P.S. Despite my good grades in school, it turns out being smart there does NOT translate to being good at mons. Which might be a good thing because I don't need or want a large ego.

So, update, I didn't get into that school. It'll be fine though, it didn't matter too much to me.

 

[McGrrr]

So who has the most student debt?

 

[cookie]

I do:

 

[BIG ASHLEY]

So who has the most student debt?

none

 

[phoopes]

I guess soon to graduate people can respond too...

okay Aldaron from 10 years ago thanks for allowing me to post here

After 8 long years in undergrad, I graduate college in a few weeks. I still have a bunch of stuff to do for my classes, but I'm feeling pretty good about everything for the most part so yay me! Now it's time for the job hunt, which I've sort of started (at least I met with a career counseling person to talk over how to make my resume and cover letter skills better) but I haven't applied anywhere just yet. Hoping to in the next few days though. Basically I'm just ready to start making money at a big boy job instead of paying money for school lol

 

[Redless]

Graduated in 2020 (holy shit 3 years ago) with a degree in Computer Science.

For 1 year I tried to do a PhD in Machine Learning, which I had spent most of my life working towards, but dropped out bc I couldn't stand academia. Ever since then my life has been more like a dream than reality.

After the PhD I went and became a software engineer at a startup. Job hunting is MUCH harder once you're like a year out of college (at least in software) bc you stop qualifying for the "new grad" positions, lose access to your college's career center, etc. People suddenly want a resume with actual work exp. and with specialization rather than treating you like a stupid but talented blank slate. In retrospect I should've tried to be a programmer from the beginning bc I am really good at it and it gives you a lot of freedom.

I started travelling about a year into my job. Went to Europe, working remotely full time (I'm American). Then the real estate market crashed and my startup had to lay off a ton of people, including me. I had planned to continue working remotely while travelling around Asia, but without a job I decided to just travel instead. I have a lot of money due to the way programmers are compensated and the fact that my rich family payed for my undergrad, so I don't need to get a job for another year or so if I keep living in low CoL places. I also think that getting a job will be relatively quick once I decide to do it.

In my free time, I'm working on programming a game. Most days I program it or design it for a few hours at a coffee shop or a restaurant. It keeps me grounded and I'm hopeful that it'll at least give me something to show for my year of travel, besides the nutso life experiences I keep having. I feel a lot of guilt about using my skills to make a game instead of making money, bc it feels super indulgent and bc I'm afraid no one will like it and I'll waste a bunch of time on it. But I want to go the whole distance and throw something finished on Steam at least once in my life, so I'm doing that now.

I have a lot of anxiety about the future, but I'm trying to cut myself some slack since I'm 25. I think my biggest fuckup so far in my life was going too quickly down the path that I thought I wanted (PhD, which my entire family pushed me towards), rather than embracing the thing that obviously fit my personality extremely well (coding). So I'm trying to dodge this by doing weird sideways stuff to have crazy experiences rather than chasing status by running as fast as I can down a single path. Every day I'm grateful that I have enough money to be able to make that decision.