• First off.. I was really bad in Highschool and a huge trouble maker. I was in this English class and we were studying Hamlet that semester. I was the only person in the entire class to ever take part in the discussion and the only one to answer any questions. However, I was constantly "high", causing trouble, and skipping the class.

    The teacher ended up kicking me out of the class permanately. But once she saw that there was no one left to intelligently discuss anything remotely related to Hamlet/Shakespear, she stopped me in the hallway and told me that she would give me a chance and that she felt sorry for me and my "wasted talent/potential". I was young, ignorant and naive to be honest.

    My chance was this - I had been permanately booted from the class. The class was right after lunch, so basically I had an extended lunch period, with no "x" hour, "x" being whatever hour that class was - I forget. Anywho, she stopped me and told me I could take the final the last day of the class or whatever. If I got higher then a 90% on the final(not being there for the majority of the semester) she would give me a D-, which was a passing grade.

    Anyways, I got 100% on it, the best grade in the class, and a lot of people that were there the entire semester failed the class. None the less, the whole moral of this story for me is that I screwed around way too much and I paid for it most of my life since then. Only now I realise the error and ignorance in my ways. Im a completely changed person. I will always remember her(and others) telling me about how much potential I had and how much of my intellect I was wasting.

    However, I'm not done with the story just yet. Everything climaxed with the SATs. I was pulled out of a class by a counselor and told I scored(and shown my scores) at the top of my class. I was to recieve a scholarship. Sounds sweet at first doesn't it?

    Bitter sweet. My GPA was at rock bottom for my class. Basically, think about it. Act as if you were in thier shoes. Give scholarship to loser that will never attend college? OR, bend the rules, make said loser's SAT score invalid, and give the scholarship illegally to someone "more deserving". They chose the latter, rather then the former..

    So basically, even after I tried to fight it, they won. I got no scholarship. I had no SAT score. In the end, I had to go an extra year of Highschool(ended up getting expelled from that one), attend summer school, stay after school to make up time, go to work, get home, eat/shower/do homework, then attend adult education at night - for a freaken year.

    None the less I got through it all. Only now I see that it all would of been less stressfull if I had just tried. All I want to tell you all is that if you are doing really bad in school and are young, there's still time to turn it around. It's only a couple of years of your life in exchange for the REST of your life and in exchange for happiness. No there isn't a guarentee of success in anything, but no one can ever call you a LOSER if you tried your hardest.

    In closing... I ended up fixing my mistakes the hard way. I had to go to a Jr. College, then I went on to a big university and got some degrees. Just years behind schedule is all. neutral

    Good luck to everyone IRL, and no matter what keep your head up and always give it your all. Also NEVER give up and it's never too late. As for that "17 Again" movie, God, I only wish... I'd do so many things differently. There's not enough room in the arena for all my mistakes and what I would do differently back then.

    But, you know what? Life is what you make it. You wouldn't be the person you are now without some mistakes and mishaps thrown in. Your experience in your early years shape you into what you are today. So, I guess.. No, I wouldn't want to go back and change things. I like who I am, for better or for worse.

    ~Tim

    PS: If you need someone to talk to, Im usually on Gaia, feel free to add me as a friend and chit chat.