<p>I work in the college bookstore, with a bunch of high schoolers, a couple drop outs who brag about how many times they have been in a mental hospital, and a kid who is going to school for pharmacy, and does heroin in his spare time (yeah. I mostly keep to myself there lol).</p>
<p>One of the high schoolers had to quit today because of a summer class she was taking. Instantly, I approach her and ask her what she is taking, and if she will be dual-enrolled. She laughed, and said that she is retaking English, because she failed it. Then I asked her what she was doing. In addition to the class. She said "nothing. Wy would I?"</p>
<p>I was in shock. I work two jobs, get As in college, and spend hours working on transfer-related stuff. I am not much older than her. There are students on here doing more more than me, at a much younger age! I think being on college confidential so much - and not currently taking classes at my community college due to intersession - has made me forget how some people are. The complete opposites of us!</p>
<p>Please tell me this happens to you all the time.</p>
<p>to be honest it sounds like you have either lived a too sheltered life or are just backhanded bragging about how you are such an overachiever. i don’t mean to be rude or call you out but at your age you should have realized by now that there are tons and tons of different types of people in this world. not all of them are busy busy busy. expecially going to a community college where there are tons of people with different life experiences you would think you would have noticed by now.</p>
<p>“to be honest it sounds like you have … lived a too sheltered life [and] are just backhanded bragging about how you are such an overachiever.”</p>
<p>I bet the dope-shooting pharmacy student has an interesting story if you’d ask him.
Elaborate.</p>
<p>There does not exist a binary between College Confidential and the rest of the world. We are not better than anybody else. There is no “we” in the first place-- sure, people here seem to be motivated and ambitious. They took the initiative to post on a college forum, at the very least. But some of “us” are also total jerks. Or some of “us” are kids with stats that are way below average and have never done an extracurricular activity in our lives. Are those kids who’ve been in mental hospitals so far off from some people on CC who might end up there themselves from overwork or putting way too much pressure on themselves? Those “other” people out there can maybe only handle one community college class per summer, but they might be incredibly thoughtful, generous people with big dreams. “Doing more stuff” has nothing to do with a person’s character. We are all so different.</p>
<p>When I was in high school, I did absolutely nothing during the summers. No summer enrichment programs, no college classes, no dual enrollment, no extracurriculars, nothing. I didn’t even work. I slouched around the house and read books, ran around with friends, and wrote fiction.</p>
<p>I’m in a PhD program now.</p>
<p>These people are just people. They are not the “complete opposite” of you. Maybe they cannot afford summer classes or programs. Or maybe they just want to enjoy their summers before they go to college.</p>
<p>There are plenty of people like that at our school, but you’ve gotta remember that not everyone has the same goals in mind. Some people are just there trying to scrape by and get their associates. Other people are planning on transferring and getting a bachelors, and others are planning on going on to grad school. Some people have kids and families to take care of, along with numerous other responsibilities.</p>
<p>Being a high school drop out isn’t necessarily a bad thing. People drop out of high school for all kinds of reasons. I’m a high school drop out and I have a 4.0 gpa in college, I’ve made the presidents list every semester I’ve been in school, I’m joining the honors society, and I’ve won several scholarships and awards through the school for academic achievements and success in tutoring students in math.</p>
<p>I find it hard to deal with some of the people at our school too, because there are a ton of people there that really don’t care that much about their academics…but not everyone feels like they need to ace every single class they’re in. There are plenty of people at our school that take their academics very seriously though too. You’ve just gotta find them. Here’s the presidents list and deans list from this last semester. [Dean’s</a> and President’s Lists - Sauk Valley Community College](<a href=“http://www.svcc.edu/students/lists/index.html]Dean’s”>Dean's and President's Lists - Sauk Valley Community College) There are quite a few people on it, considering that our school only enrolls around 3000 students. The presidents list is 3.75+ and the deans list is 3.5+. At our leadership awards ceremony this last semester, there were I believe around 35 students graduating with 4.0 gpa’s…many of them were my friends. </p>
<p>It’ll be the same at any school. There are always going to be the people that are over achievers, and the people that are only trying to scrape by with the minimum and complete their degree…along with people everywhere else in between.</p>
<p>I’m surprised that there are non-students working in a campus bookstore.</p>
<p>it’s called diversity hahah
not everyone goes to college and not everyone has a 4.0 in high school yafeel</p>
<p>I’ve never encountered anyone who wasn’t exactly like me.</p>
<p>If I ever do, I’ll be sure to look down on them from the comfort of an Internet forum.</p>
<p>Just focus on running your own race, and remember that everyone you meet is running their own race, on a very different course than yours.</p>