Random Thoughts....

The thought of entering my final four years of school and making the decisions that will ultimately shape my life in the years to come really is daunting and I just can't help but wonder why I didn't realize this earlier ..

WTF. I must agree that you're only 14. I'm 17, and in my last year of school (before uni). And while it will be a sad day to leave, I don't see that I have made my life choices. And I really didn't when I chose my GCSEs.
 
It's a great secret in the world that high school is actually just like middle school with a different name.
 
killpanda, it depends on what type of job you're trying to get. If you're looking for a specific skilled job, companies will be willing to go through all the paperwork and everything.
 
I applied to a number of jobs I found on craigslist, most of them are about Apple, we'll see if they find me valuable enough to do paperwork or wait while I do it.
 
It's a great secret in the world that high school is actually just like middle school with a different name.

For me (and probably quite a lot of people in the UK) this isn't a secret. I've been at the same school since I was 11 :p 6th Form >>>>>>> College.
 
I applied to a number of jobs I found on craigslist, most of them are about Apple, we'll see if they find me valuable enough to do paperwork or wait while I do it.

They don't hire anyone who is not a fanboy
 
For me, it was 8 years in primary school, which was a relatively small Irish national Sacred Heart school, religion a pretty big factor.
A little prayer service and announcements on Monday morning in the "halla", "Alive-o" religion books, student teachers teaching us Irish with weird storyboards involving the Simpsons, and lots and lots of "marla" (plasticine), which was always grey or brown...
2nd class and 6th class was nothing but singing in preparation for Communion and Confirmation.

Secondary school was a cpmpletely different kettle of fish, no more marla, we still had religion (compulsory exam subject for the Junior Cert :mad:), it's a new school aswell so it just seemed much more...comfortable...
There was one teacher there who was pretty religion mad....one Ash Wednesday she went round with the little tray of ashes asking people if they wanted them, and pretty much everyone said "eeeeem...no thanks!"...eventually she stooped to just walking up to some guy, and plopping the ashes on his forehead, without asking :p

The poor bastard could have been Jewish for all she knew...
 
See I went to different schools but with the same people pretty much from age 5 to 18 so it was a lot of "next verse same as the first, little bit louder, little bit worse."
 
^ I was (I think) fortunate enough to have a complete change over of friends at 11. I was the only guy in my year at primary school to go to my secondary school. But the schools themselves had basically the same outlook. And I frankly love my school :p Its only when you are just at the end of your time that you realise how much you have changed in the years there. Must be weird being a teacher - seeing so many kids going through puberty and changing so much.
 
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Let's see:

Public school pre-2nd, charter school 3rd-5th, private school 6-10, 11-12... not sure how to categorize it.

I must say the last one was an excellent experience, when your entire class is under 50 people, everyone knows everyone and there are no cliques or any of that crap you get in a typical high school.

Unfortunately, that means I missed out on a lot of typical teenager stuff too.
 
^I'd call your 11-12 school a magnet school. A highly specialized one, but still magnet. I kind of wanted to go to our math and science school because I hated my regular school, but it was boarding out of town and my parents wouldn't even let me apply.
 
Friends wise...I didn't have that many in primary school, and the 2 friends I made in primary school I fell out with near the end of 5th class, was my fault really :(.

Then I went into secondary school as pretty much a loner, and then went on to make a fair few friends (was part of a biggish group which was nice)

That group kind of dispersed after the JC, and then made some new friends in 5th and 6th year, but now we barely ever see each other, so we've pretty much grown apart :(

Now I'm in college, in a class of about 450 people, and find it really hard to make new friends.
Maybe it will be easier next semester when I start my Marketing major, when I'm with smaller groups.
 
Yeah I made my best friends in college once our class size got smaller sophomore year. I also met some people through a volunteer group. I'll tell you what though, making friends after college is the real bitch. People are all "grown up" and married with kids and crap. When you're the random single one, it's just impossible.
 
^I'd call your 11-12 school a magnet school. A highly specialized one, but still magnet. I kind of wanted to go to our math and science school because I hated my regular school, but it was boarding out of town and my parents wouldn't even let me apply.

Interesting, I've never heard the term "Magnet School" before. Wikipedia agrees with you.
 
Might be a regional thing. I went to a sci/math middle/high school in the South that was defined as a magnet school, with about 120-odd people in my class. The Canadian equivalent is "actal", short for academically talented; no idea what the equivalent term is in the northeast.
 
Interesting, I've never heard the term "Magnet School" before. Wikipedia agrees with you.

Might be a regional thing. I went to a sci/math middle/high school in the South that was defined as a magnet school, with about 120-odd people in my class. The Canadian equivalent is "actal", short for academically talented; no idea what the equivalent term is in the northeast.

Magnet schools are a relatively new concept in education and tend to only occur in really big school districts so it's not surprising you don't know them. State arts schools and math/sci schools "attract out" students from the entire state but large school districts often have them as well. I was first exposed to the term when I was teaching in Nashville a few years ago. They can have all sorts of different qualifications with "academically talented" apparently being the bottom! I had a friend who taught at a literature magnet high school with NO academic standards to get in. Half the kids were in remedial reading. What really got me were the magnet elementary schools. How the heck do you magnet out a 5 year old?
 
Wow. Luckily that was not the case with mine. Thanks for the info, but I seem to have already +repped you recently.
 
This page is completely devoid of todays theme! AND it's page 1700!

https://pic.armedcats.net/k/kn/knarkas/2009/09/25/macaulay_culkin.jpg
Putin

https://pic.armedcats.net/k/kn/knarkas/2009/09/25/putin1.jpg
Culkin
 
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