<p>For me, I was a slacker in high school. I cared about academics and wanted to do better but somehow just never found the way for myself to go hard enough to do well enough to get into a good college after HS. However, once I got into college, I was super dedicated my first year to transfer to a better university and worked harder than some of the top kids from my HS. Dramatic change in motivation and maturity in just one year. </p>
<p>Anyone else experienced any big change?</p>
<p>That is happening to me right now. I just enjoy college classes more than the drama of high school.</p>
<p>YES!</p>
<p>In High School, I was a status-obsessed trainwreck (but still had very few friends). I was very sensitive and obsessed w/my looks and would be so heart-broken if somebody implied I wasn’t attractive. I was just very critical of how&what people thought of me.</p>
<p>Fast Forward 5 Semesters into College: 
<ol>
<li><p>IF you think i’m ugly: I don’t give a ----; regardless of who you are, there will ALWAYS be ppl who think your attractive and ppl who think you’re fugly. Don’t like me? ON TO DA NEXT ONE!.. won’t lose any sleep over it.</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t care if you think i’m a “loser” for not having many friends. I have other ways of measuring my self-worth and I see friends more as a liability anyways.</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t care about impressing to dress. Soon when I got to college, I realized that nobody even cares about that crap. Most ppl dress frumpy&bummy anyways.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Sometimes I wish that I could go back in time to High School and do things differently but the only way to look is forward so…gotta keep livin and learning.</p>
<p>AS for from a more “Academic standpoint”… I perform MUCH better in College then how I did in High School. </p>
<p>In High School, I barely graduated with a 2.5 GPA. In College, my GPA is approaching 3.5. Partially due to having the luxury of studying WHAT YOU WANT TO STUDY and overall just having much more freedom, <strong>control</strong> and space.</p>
<p>i think ive read an article somewhere about Obama drastically changing his behaviors in his late teens. I think late teens is when a lot of people go through massive change whether its due to biology or environment.</p>
<p>I was a wild child in high school. Partied all the time, did insane amounts of drugs, dyed my hair something bizarre every few weeks, and barely made it through high school with a 2.5 gpa.</p>
<p>Started at community college and finished my first semester with a 4.0 (taking only 6 credits though). Doing a dual degree program at a university and currently have a 3.7 gpa. I spend my evenings studying, not partying, and spend most of my time with my family, or my bf & his family. It’s a lot quieter and more peaceful, and I couldn’t be happier with my 180 lifestyle change.</p>
<p>Between high school and college, I dropped the perfectionist streak that had been in me for so long. You see, in high school I felt like I had to do the absolute very best I could. I was displeased when it turned out I didn’t have one of the top ten averages in the school for the semester. I was hard on myself when I saw that my 97 average fell to a 94ish. Heck, once in elementary school I was feeling down because my otherwise high average was floating around a 90.</p>
<p>Then something changed. I started not caring as much about my grades. I kid you not, even if the grades I got in high school were 10 points lower, I still probably could have gotten into any college I wanted. I realized that and since then, my main concern has been more along the lines of “Did I pass?” than “Did I pass with one of the highest grades?” I’ve realized that I can, in fact, have a 3.6 GPA and stand just as much a chance of getting hired as that dude over there with the 4.0 GPA. I don’t slack off, by any means, but if I’m not top dog I don’t sweat it. Close is good enough for me.</p>
<p>Yep, I was a big big slacker in high school. I didn’t really care about my future or anything. That’s changed now, I get much better grades in college than I did in high school (save for this semester…) because I just care more. I didn’t care in high school because nobody gave me a reason to. </p>
<p>I’m a bigger partier now. I never went to a single party (as in drinking, loud music, girls, etc) in high school. Didn’t drink till my last month of HS, never smoked cannabis. I now quite enjoy both. And I balance them with my obligations pretty well. I’m glad I loosened up and discovered how to have a good time. And along those lines, I’m also less judgmental of people.</p>
<p>I also stopped caring so much about what other people think about me. It still gets to me sometimes, but for the most part I am who I am and I don’t give a single damn about what anyone thinks. Very few people are equipped to judge me, especially when I don’t judge them.</p>
<p>My aspirations also changed. I used to dream of white collar success. Upper management by 30, big house with a picket fence, sending kids to private school, driving a Lexus SUV. I realized that’s all pretty transient stuff. I want to live comfortably, yes, but I don’t need to live in excess. Now one of my dream jobs would be the supply chain manager of a major craft beer company (think Flying Dog or New Belgium… ooh, New Belgium would be nice since they’re HQ’d in Colorado). It’s certainly not the job expected of kids who went to my high school (usually it’s working at NGOs, big law firms, medicine, **** like that).</p>
<p>Yes, I guess I changed dramatically. I’m glad I did.</p>
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<p>But you go to Kansas State, though.</p>
<p>Oh no, a state university, he must be a boor!</p>
<p>Given the context, KSU seems to be his dream school. Only way you can justify that quote really.</p>