24 Feb 2020

I remember being in school. Having all the days, slowly, gruellingly, roll into one. There were periods where I wondered what was I really doing there. I wasn’t motivated. I wasn’t learning what I wanted to learn, I wasn’t given the space to be who I wanted to be.

Honestly, this period eventually subsided, but I seriously considered dropping out throughout Year 10.

I’m not about to tell you that you definitely should or you definitely shouldn’t, but you should think seriously about what option is right for you.

 

Should I stay or should I go?

If you’re leaning more towards leaving school, think about whether or not school has anything left to offer you. Maturity within students that are the same age can range drastically, and some are much more equipped to enter the real world than others.

There might be something you already know you want to study at tafe, and leaving school early will give you a really nice head start.

You might want to jump into a trade or another area of the workforce, and if you’re ready to, it can help alleviate the stress of feeling like you’re in a place that you don’t belong.

However, even if you don’t want to admit it, school can be a really important place to facilitate growth and maturity, and you could need those extra few years in a space that would help figure out who you are.

Looking back on my high school years, I’m partially undecided if I made the right decision in terms of staying towards the end. Two years out of school, and I’m yet to use my ATAR, or most of the content I memorised for essays.

However, my fondest high school memories are from my final two years of school. I began to really enjoy my time there, and I solidified friendships I’ll have for life. I also found joy in extracurricular activities, more so than I ever had before. I started to treat school not as this exam machine that had been sold to me; I started to treat it as somewhere I could broaden my horizons.

Overall, everyone is different, and everyone experiences high school differently. If you have the resources to leave school and start pursuing a path that’s more suited to you, do it. 

But also think about whether or not you’ve gained everything you can from your high school experience. If you do think you’ve gained enough, that’s great. But if you haven’t, you have nothing to worry about.