Did You Drop Out of High School?

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I left on my 16th birthday in 10th grade. Happiest day of my life, I was finally free. I completed 10th grade. I later got my GED, scored exceptionally high, then went on to college and I'll graduate this December.

The reason I left, I'll give the very short version. My parents didn't bother to get me to school on time, wouldn't let me ride the bus, and the walk was too far. I was the chronic late kid. Also, as peer pressure mounted and life became an unbearable hell, I just simply stopped going to classes I had problems in. The school counselors told me to "deal with it", the vice principal told me I "look[ed] like a scene from Sesame Street" when I came to him in tears one day because of what some girls had done to me and finally the school called Children's Services on my parents. My caseworker placed me in detention for being truant, where I stayed for six months. I have PTSD from the experience, as they were unaware of my Aspeger's (and uninterested anyhow) and I was forced to conform or treated cruelly, psychologically abused by the staff. I was once told that if I did not decorate a Christmas tree with oneof the counselors, I would not be permitted to even speak to my family over the holiday and I would be kept alone in the facility for the holiday. Things like that. By the time they released me I was almost completely non-verbal and battling severe anorexia.

Because of those counselors, I have never been able to seek therapy. Catch 22 - I need help from the very type of people I was abused by. So I suffer in silence, when the nightmares wake me in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. Fortunately, after 14 years, they only come once every couple of months instead of several times a week.

Dropped out halfway through 12th grade. Why? I failed so many classes it would have taken me 2 more years to make up the credits to graduate. Surprised I made it to 12th grade. The counselor was the one that convinced me to just drop out, I skipped classes and I caused trouble. "You obviously don't want to be here, just drop out, what are you still doing here?" - was his words.

I have a Master's Degree, but feel I should have left school after my Bachelor's. I was so sick of the political correctness at the University that I felt like dying every day. I am glad I stuck it out, but it took me three tries to pass my comprehensive exam and I felt a sense of relief rather than one of accomplishment. High school was the last place I felt I really excelled. I had a decent, but not spectacular, G.P.A. of 3.25 in college.

I did very poorly in school, socially. I got good grades if I
was left alone and ignored for the most part. I started to
get poor grades when I started to get noticed.
I always tested high in most everything, (not math so
much). I could simply not figure out where I fit in anywhere
in the cliques. I felt incredibly shy and confused most of the
time, and handled bullying and peer pressure VERY badly.
Typically around puberty I started the hormone thing I
suppose, around 12 years old or so. I flunked out of every
school I was placed in.

My behavior just got worse and worse, and it...stayed there
until I finally ran away from home at age 16, so I had part of
my junior year, but I barely participated: I just showed up. I
was gone for a year and a half from running away. I came
back and took my GED in the same year I was supposed to
graduate. I leveled out around 19 and have pretty much
stayed quirky, and reclusive ever since.

I do very well when I am alone and can study at my own pace,
and am able to follow my obsessions, as well as one on one
from a tutor. Classrooms?...fuggeddaboutit I have learned to
see a melt down coming and can usually figure out how to
either shield myself from triggers, most of the time, or remove
myself from the situation. Mind you, I am 51 years old, and I
have had a lot of time and experiences to practice in. I am to
the point where I pretty much don't give a flying *uck what
anyone thinks of me anymore. I know what I can tolerate and
what I can not and I deal with it all the best I possibly can.

I agree! I am in late forties, and I have achieved a kind of peace, finally. I dropped out of HS in my 16th year, because I just couldn't take the noise, the crowds and the confusion. I also struggled with depression and severe anorexia. I got my GED at 19, and later went on to college. Asperger's was unheard of back then, so nobody had a clue.

Halfway through 11. From year 9 onwards I was there in body, my mind was...elsewhere.

qoute:

I am to
the point where I pretty much don't give a flying *uck what
anyone thinks of me anymore. I know what I can tolerate and
what I can not and I deal with it all the best I possibly can.

i totally agree with this, i'm only 27, but when i was in school aspergers wasnt even known. and was told good education, good job skills and your set, yeah right now that f*****g helped. just a little bit pissed about the education system.

I almost dropped out of high school, stopped going at like 15 and a half, refused to go anymore. My family wouldn't sign me out though, so I ended up going back when I was like 16 and a half, but to a program called project hope. Its a program where kids with "Social phobias, or anxiety" are put, which is what the school said but when I first got there, they weren't kids scared of school or people, they were kids either right out of jail, or on probation, or apart of gangs from other schools, or drug dealers.

I went from school from 10-1:40, had 4th grade math homework, played mortal kombat like half the time I was there, watched movies, occasionally went to the gym, had to eat in the classroom, which also had bars in it, and left on a special bus and couldn't have any contact with the rest of the school. It was crazy, so from my junior year until I graduated was in the classroom, all I learned was street smarts, like how to use a gun, how to use a knife properly, how to deal drugs, learned how to defend myself, would get beaten at least twice a day outside when we had breaks, until I became "accepted" by the other classmates.

It was basically like jail, except, that I got to go home afterwards, and there were no prison guards to help you. We had one teacher, and one aid, who just read newspapers the whole time. I also learned how fight, and how to make frenchtoast in jail lol, and other bad things. So when I graduated from high school, I didn't know anything except how to fight, defend myself, made friends who were apart of the bloods(gang), and basically became very street smart! I kind of wish, my family would just let me drop out, or anything... It was defintely the craziest experience I've ever been through .

(((((siuan)))))

*astards!! !

I too left school at that age.

I also left home for good then.

At aged 13 I walked into the Children's services office and asked them to take me into their care, which they did. My family was a mess and well, to a certain degree, I understand the mental anguish you experienced while in the hands of those monsters. I have some horror stories, as well. I was forced into foster care, as the group homes were full in the first few weeks. The foster home sent their teenaged children to drill me for personal/private information, which I resented and withheld. This pissed them off so they made up stories. I was accused of smoking crack (at 13!! !) and said to be a thief. When I finally got to the group home, I was shunned by the others because I was not hard ass like the rest of them. I was not interested in stealing, fighting, screaming and driving the staff all mad while running about the house turning all the pictures upside down, putting eggs under peoples beds, stealing peoples clothes, etc. It was this insanity that led me to return home (which I knew was just as toxic) and I started high school late because of this.

In Canada, at that time, you got 8 credits per year. In all of my years there, I got 14, all in arts and English (which were my areas of interest and refused the others). I was a hands on learner. I needed to see/experience things in order to retain the information and well, sitting looking at a textbook just wasn't doing it for me.

I did not fit in with the others. I kept to myself. I did not like unnecessary attention, so hated presentations, being prompted for an answer, etc. I read, drew, spoke to my teachers more than anyone else in the school and well, when anyone did bother with me, it was usually the sort I wasn't looking to attract (other social outcast/ mischievous type or people looking to have a laugh at my expense).

Eventually, I stopped going to classes. Started sleeping in more. Daydreamed of the days when I could attend college and take the program of my choice, skipping out on all the unnecessary crap.

I can't say I have ever regretted leaving high school and while I loved my college programs, I was sure to use my young daughter as an excuse for my isolation from the rest of my peers whenever anything social did arise. 3 years of college, 2 diploma programs and I did not even go to the graduation ceremony!! !

Um...sorta....I am ONE semester of ONE math class short of a HS diploma...and so I have my GED.

I guess I was pretty good for having lasted that long.

After that, I immediately got a job, and then entered community college a year later....did horribly....plowed aimlessly at it for a coupla years before becoming completely distracted from it altogether...no financial aid..too expensive...i didn't know what I was doing there.....aiming for an "associates of arts"....but didn't know what I was gonna do with it.

I dropped out of college, 3 times. I went to high school cause my mom made me but the only class i really went into was history class

I left high school senior year. I had enough of my problems being completely ignored by the faculty, when it was very clear the other students were the cause of my problems, and they never got in trouble for it. At least trouble significant enough for them to change their behaviour.

I finished with decent marks, though in the last 2 years had over a 50% absent rate in the mornings because I simply didn't want to be there. I wasn't bullied at all though, I was just very oblivious to social situations and was called gullible alot, but I still had friends. My sister dropped out in grade 10 because she was apparently having issues with the teachers, though I found out later she was getting A's in maths. I'm fairly sure AS is in my family genetically, but not at such a crippling level as many others have described it here.

edit: I currently have 1 year left with an engineering degree at university, only barely making it though and expect it to all come apart next year when I have to do a year long thesis with a lecturerer. I never go to lectures and seem to be one of the only remaining students who doesn't have a list of contacts/friends within the faculty.

I have never dropped out.

I got almost all A's through about 8th grade with a few accommodations (extra time for English/Writing assignments). Then around 9th grade I got sick of it all and lost all my motivation. I won’t say high school was hell because it wasn’t actually that bad compared to Junior High.

I think I had some hormonal or chemical changes because around that time all I could think about was “what’s the point”. I felt incapable of being excited by anything. It felt like I was going to live the rest of my life in a state of emptiness and then die. Right about the time when everyone else was looking forward to growing up, looking for love, driving, becoming more independent, etc., I just stopped caring. I didn’t look forward to any of that and felt nothing but apprehension and apathy towards the future. I didn’t feel there was anything for me to look forward to in life period.

I stumbled along until about 11th grade only going to school for tests or when my parents literally had someone come to the house and force me. Stopped doing homework assignments because I couldn’t muster the energy and it seemed so pointless. I didn’t really have a specific time I decided I was going to “drop out”. I just went less and less until I stopped completely. I didn’t get out of bed much for almost a year. At the same time my parents were sending me to all kinds of different psychiatrists and having me try a million different anti-depressant medications which hardly worked at all and mostly had bad side effects. My parents wanted to have me committed to the hospital a few times but I refused to go voluntarily so it never happened.

To make a long story short I eventually came around when my father decided to give me a second chance and paid for me to take calculus and physics at the community college (I enjoyed these subjects and worked very hard). I did well and started taking college classes part time and working in the computer lab. After a couple years I got a GED and an associates degree from the community college, then went on to get a BS degree in meteorology three years after that. Now I’m just starting to work on my master’s degree.

I think I could have been three years ahead of where I am now if I had just dropped high school right of the bat and done a combination of home schooling, GED, and community college classes.