<p>As long as they respect your aspirations and don't expect you to help them cheat, there's nothing wrong with being friends with them. Most of my friends, while generally good at school, don't have talents in the academic arena. I have friends who are musicians, athletes, writers, fashionistas, dancers...and who would put those talents above schoolwork any day. I think that's fascinating and makes for a much more interesting group of friends, actually. Sure, I have the friends I study with. But I also have friends who can't quite grasp that I'm excited to read This Side of Paradise or to write a paper. That's okay; we get along regardless.</p>
<p>Most of the world is apathetic to things like school and work. Even in the workforce--and I hope to be a writer, where the low payday <em>should</em> weed out posers--there are people with other priorities. I think it makes life interesting, not disappointing.</p>
<p>ALL of my friends aren't academically oriented. Some of my friends are from the poorer "white trash" area of our town, while some are artist/drama types. I myself am a drama type of sorts; however, I also have excellent grades, strong SAT scores, and decent-for-CC ECs. I am the "black sheep" of our school's top 10 in that I am not in their friend group (we're all in Drama, but that's about all I share with them), I'm not on the school paper, and I'm not in choir. I do my own thing; I've always done my own thing, and my friends have never hindered me. They're all wonderful people (the best person I've ever known is of the aforementioned poorer "white trash" area of town, and my best friend - a pretty fabulous artist - is a straight B- student) and I wouldn't give them or my "Brainy, but a Freak" status up if I could.</p>
<p>making school your entire focus is just ridiculous. there's no end to studying like that; if you keep living by these extreme values, you'll never ever have a real life, not in your dream college, not in your dream job. you'll just be working your *** off for something better.. which is ironic, because you'r saying that you're studying for "fulfillment in life". according to your formula, basically money=happiness and fulfillment in life, which sounds nothing but scary to me. I'm not saying that you should slack off/party every day and night/stop caring about school altogether, but you should definitely (and urgently) realize that school (and eventually money, following your line of thought) is just a tool that may be used towards happiness(which might not always work), not your ultimate aim in life. academic and financial success doesn't always equal happiness, and if you build your whole life on this doubtful formula, you're likely to be disappointed in near future.</p>
<p>studying means going that extra mile to make sure you make fives on all of your ap tests, reading ahead in textbooks
memorizing stuff you really don't want to memorize...</p>
<p>doing HARDCORE reading and memorizing vocab to ensure a good SAT score on the reading/writing section</p>
<p>and i'm pretty satisfied with my competence in mathematics =]</p>
<p>studying isn't/shouldn't be that. what you just described translates "memorizing" -- won't get you anywhere in long term. studying should result in an actual "learning" experience, if you know what I mean..</p>
<p>Hah. Someone said something about boyfriends being angry because their girlfriend put school before them...
Haha.
My ex-boyfriend, who is a year older than me, will be shocked to see that I kick his grades into the DIRT in the coming year. And this was random but I don't care. :P
We always had a competitive relationship when it came to school (I got a 99 in Soc Studies in 8th grade, he got a 99. I got a perfect Math final grade 8, he got a perfect English final.) So if I kick his butt in 9th grade... It's the perfect revenge.
I mean, prank calling him and being a ***** would be short term revenge and whatever. But since we still talk, mentioning that perfect Biology test I took that he got an 86 on... Major awesomeness.</p>
<p>Wow. I am sort of scared. In a bad way. I pity -- though I shouldn't -- those of you who are giving everything up for school. Do you really enjoy school that much?</p>
<p>If you are saying that it will make you happier in the long run, pursue happiness in the present. Be happy now! It does not really matter what you get on your SAT. It has very little to do with how successful you are going to be. Though, I have to admit you will not be successful with <800. </p>
<p>I am watching the olympics right now. I am watching the Chinese gymnasts who get dragged away at age three to train for their whole life but never seem to be to happy except if they win for a single moment. Seems oddly relevant.</p>
<p>I am in APs and Honors and I usually hang out with people who are not in my classes just because it is more fun. Or if the people are in my class I hang out with them because we goof off in class. School is important but not to the level you are taking it.</p>
<p>I suggest reading books you like to read and if they help your vocab, great! If not, who cares? I feel guilty when studying for SAT because it is so boring and I could be doing something fun.</p>
<p>Omg you basically read my mind with this post.</p>
<p>I have two best friends who I've known since Kindergarden and have been my nieghbors for like 16 years lol.
So everytime we're about to get off the bus, they're like "aight, we're chillen right?". I try wiggle out of it by saying "nahhh man, I got like 4 tests this week. gotta study "... and then they automatically team up and force themselves into my house lol. </p>
<p>It's not that they're dumb, because they're not. One is actually real lazy who can care less where he goes to school (be it a 4th tier college), and the other who's quite smart has it all planned out that he's going to Penn State, like both his sisters and parents.</p>
<p>I try to tell him, why settle for Penn State when with extra effort you can go to like Stanford or NYU Stern(my dream school).</p>
<p>In a sense, the people at my school are academically oriented, but not because they're interested in it, but because school seems to lead everyone to believe that if they take lots of AP classes, and join a million clubs they don't care about and they ALL do it, they ALL can go to <em>clap clap clap</em> any Cal State within five miles distance from the school! Wooo!! Four more years of high school!</p>
<p>Yeah, it's no fun when you're surrounded by peope who've been raised to believe that WORK WORK WORK will get you the typical American dream, and yet they aren't raised to find joy in said work. I suppose it's because they're mostly 1st generation going to college, but it sucks. I get almost constantly ridiculed by them because I dream of going to Brown, instead of Cal State Long Beach like everyone else.</p>
<p>Most of my friends are actually somewhat academically oriented. Sure, they pretend they don't care sometimes, but most of the time they try to study hard and worry about college and all of that fun stuff. </p>
<p>The majority of my school, however, does not care about academics and that majority annoys me very much. I've been called a loser, probably because I never even try to pretend I don't care. Actually, I wrote a satire for the school paper about this very type of thing, though most likely no one read it. The really motivated people in my school are really motivated, but the majority who don't care are a problem.</p>