High Number of Suicide Rates Investigated by the CDC

[Tulemutt]

There aren't really "Seven Deadly Sins". The number one they missed is "Don't live your life judging yourself by others' standards".

This manic drive to drive one's kids to excel is a sin. Life is short. And when you're done and dead, you're done and dead. Enjoy, simply, and do no harm. It's that basic.

[rosa surf]

Too much pressure to be something not all can attain. Pressure leads to anxiety, depression, stress and mental issues.

Plus, teens don't have the capacity yet to express their emotions, nor do they have the power to change their settings. Calls for lots of hoplessness. So sad.

Life keeps getting more and more complicated. At the same time, people seem to want to complicate their lives more and more.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by rosa surf

Life keeps getting more and more complicated. At the same time, people seem to want to complicate their lives more and more.

Curious, no?

[rosa surf]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Curious, no?

Yes, it even feels like we have to fight against having our lives get more complicated. At least I feel that way. Our cost of living increases, bills increase, etc....more and more each year.

How come most people who went to run of the mill public schools came out normal and are succesful? Why do children have to get 4.5 GPAs and go straight to college? I don't think life will be ruined for them if they go to community college and transfer to a university.

I have a co-worker who owes 100k from going to an elite school in the East Coast. She ended up truly hating her career choice, to the point where she will not even work in that field. Now she owes all of that money, and for what? What was the point of paying soooo much for school, just to say you went to an elite school?

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by rosa surf

Yes, it even feels like we have to fight against having our lives get more complicated. At least I feel that way. Our cost of living increases, bills increase, etc....more and more each year.

How come most people who went to run of the mill public schools came out normal and are succesful? Why do children have to get 4.5 GPAs and go straight to college? I don't think life will be ruined for them if they go to community college and transfer to a university.

I have a co-worker who owes 100k from going to an elite school in the East Coast. She ended up truly hating her career choice, to the point where she will not even work in that field. Now she owes all of that money, and for what? What was the point of paying soooo much for school, just to say you went to an elite school?

Heh. Well, I'm a high school drop out, retired blue collar guy. Happily so. So, I'm good with skipping a lot of that crap. And, before a bunch of folks write in here about how things have changed in the past two hundred years since I grew up () allow me to introduce you to my kids below. I wrote this about a week or so ago in another thread:

My youngest son and his wife don't have any kind of college degrees. They have high school diplomas. 31 years old. Two kids, two houses. Their current home is a 4/3, $350k, tract home in a very nice little small town not far from a small, highly desirable (university) city. That's where they bought their first house, a $225k, 2/1 bungalow, now a rental for their investment. That small city is not far from one of the big, very desirable, expensive cities. She is a Starbucks retail store manager. Son is a shop foreman for a custom kitchen fabricator. He runs a crew of about 10 or a dozen. His bosses are crazy about him. One fired his own son for not measuring up to the family business, and elevated my son to foreman. First in every morning, last to turn out the lights at night. Never a sick day. Never a complaint. One of the quietest guys you'd ever meet. Hardly says a word beyond what it takes to get the job done. Slow, steady, methodical, detailed, artistic eye. Ranges between $65k and $85k a year for the past 7 years, depending on bonuses based on total company profits. Wife I'd guess pulls in another about $60k.

Other older son has a high school diploma also, one kid, lives on a boat like his old man, and works waterfront construction driving pilings, building riprap seawalls, docks, and such. Runs cranes and tugboats and barges. I don't know exactly what he earns but it's something over about $35 an hour. Used to commercial fish. Money he saves and invests by not having a mortgage is building for his perpetual dream of hunting and fishing 365 days a year. Drives an old pick up truck. Takes his kid fishing and hunting. Some of us call that real living.

The boys' half sister, who calls me pops, and who I mostly raised, is in her 40's now, has a GED high school diploma only. She's worked at the same HMO for almost 25 years. Started as a file clerk. In management now at about $70k a year + some bonuses. One kid, little girl. Buying a $750,000 house in the big, fancy City. I helped her qualify and chipped in a little on the down. Super low interest rate, she makes those whopping payments by renting the daylight lower level studio apartment and three bedrooms. So she and her kid are running a boarding house sort of.

The three of them and their partners and kids are thick as thieves. Fishing, camping, holidays together. Living large. Now. Today. No student loans. No whining.

None of them feel that "my generation" ripped them off or owes them a thing.

[rosa surf]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Heh. Well, I'm a high school drop out, retired blue collar guy. Happily so. So, I'm good with skipping a lot of that crap. And, before a bunch of folks write in here about how things have changed in the past two hundred years since I grew up () allow me to introduce you to my kids below. I wrote this about a week or so ago in another thread:

That is great! I think you make the best with what you have, but it has to be YOUR own path. We need to be given the tools to advance by our parents, but everyone's path needs to be their own and there isn't one way of doing things.

[Bonez765]

I went to a high school that had advanced honors programs of which many of my peers went to more desirable universities (Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, the service academies, and Ivy Leagues). Although I had good grades and could have gone to at least one of those high baller colleges, I didn't do it because it would have been suicidal for me and then I would have ended up in debt. Besides that, I wanted to go to school in San Diego rather going to Berkeley and dealing with overtly competitive peers who think studying is everything (I'm the type of dude whose definition of a party is one that ends at 5 AM; that doesn't fly in Berkeley and Stanford). I didn't go to school in San Diego and I ended up dropping out of college and enlisting in the navy (and ending up in a STEM job as well) so that I get the partying off my system, see what I truly like, and trying again to go to school in San Diego or in another part of the country.

Living that overtly competitive life isn't worth it. Most of those guys end up being middle class anyway, but with a lot more debt, being miserable, and hating life when life shouldn't be hated. Those teenagers killing themselves do it because they can't stand the pressure of trying to get a 4.0 GPA, being in loads of extracurricular activities, and studying like crazy for the ACT/SAT, IBO tests, or for AP tests. That right there is insane and it actually hurts creativity in the long run because loads of students like that don't learn social skills that's very necessary in the work place and isn't taught in school. I hope they do make big changes but I seriously doubt it. The suicides are also influenced in that Asian tiger mom parenting is very common in Palo Alto and this would mean doing serious cultural changes, which never happen quickly.

[Fubarbundy]

Maybe they should rename the city Palo Bajo?