Mootoo wrote:
Sparrowrose wrote:
I saw that it's totally worth the struggle to get there.
How is it totally worth it? If it's an absolutely good thing then there's reason to strive to go to it, but considering it's still made of humans in the education system, I wonder if that could be true...
a. Indulging in your special interest is no longer "something weird," it's your job
b. If you choose the right university to go to, there will be at least a couple of other people who are either completely focused on your special interest or completely focused on something so related to your special interest that they think what you study is really cool and want to have lots of deep conversations with you about it
c. The bullies have grown up a little which means they have had to get more subtle in order to get by. It's a lot easier to ignore their stupid comments and they're far less likely to do actually damaging things like throw rocks at you
d. reading books, researching, writing for hours -- these are no longer freakish activities that get you ostracized. They're what almost everyone in your community is doing
e. The farther along you get in your studies, the more your "quirks" are accepted. Once you get to graduate school, you're practically expected to be strange. If you continue on to professor status, your eccentricities can actually get you more respect because, just as there is a stereotype that intelligent people wear glasses, there is a stereotype that brilliant professors are eccentric.
None of this may be enough to make you decide to set aside your depression and decide that life just might be worth living after all. But hundreds of other people will come through here and read this thread and hopefully if I haven't encouraged you, I will have encouraged someone else who's less set in their decision to end their life.
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"In the end, we decide if we're remembered for what happened to us or for what we did with it."
-- Randy K. Milholland
Avatar=WWI propaganda poster promoting victory gardens.