@mom2and, I certainly missed a lot of school. I missed more than 4 weeks 1st and 2nd grade, and usually missed 10 days or so every other year. Senior year I missed 10 consecutive days due to a mysterious ailment that was probably psychosomatic. I made the decision after being accepted to a couple of colleges that I didn’t want to go to college. A few months of cleaning off tables at a restaurant changed that. I didn’t find college difficult, but was on the verge of dropping out a couple of times because I was bored out of my mind by most of my classes. I tried starting a Master’s program in history, but I quickly realized that there was no way I wanted to pursue any topic in that degree of depth. I graduated because the work was very easy for me. Did being challenged help? Not really. I guess it was a fair trade, going through years of being bored out of my mind in exchange for having an interesting career.