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I'm a 20 year old male. I just finished my third year of college. I was going for a Biology degree. I've been doing poorly in my classes. In my science classes, I've mostly received C's, D's, and a few F's. I even did a little poorly in a few of my Gen-eds. My GPA was a 2.6 at the end of last term. It's not that the work was ever difficult, I just simply never had enough interest to study and do my work. I started losing interest in school the further I went.
I wasn't premed. I never wanted to go to Medical School to become a doctor. I thought about PA school, but I wasn't sure. I thought about becoming a nurse. I was thinking about leaving my university and enrolling in my local community college to take prerequisite classes for nursing programs. But now, I'm not sure if I even want to do that.
To be honest with you, I don't know what I want to do with my life. I don't have a passion for anything. I'm not really good at anything. I really wish I would've took time off after high school before going to college. I just wasn't ready for college yet. I only went because I saw no other option and my mother kind of pressured me to go. I didn't even know what to major in. I just picked Biology and went on from there. Even if I wanted to go to professional school or nursing school, my grades are too poor to get into a reputable program.
I've never had a job. I still don't have my driver's license. I suffer with social anxiety and possibly ADHD. Having social anxiety and ADHD can really hinder me as far as with career aspects. No one wants a nurse or other professional that's an introvert with no people skills. I've lost my scholarship twice for not being able to maintain the GPA requirement.
I just don't think I'm in the right frame of mind to be in school right now. I shouldn't be in school if I don't know what direction I'm going. That's just wasting my time and money.
I'm thinking about taking a few years off from school to work full-time, probably volunteer on the side, learn how to drive, and get my mental health in order. But most importantly I want to try to find my passion in life.
I'm $17,000 in debt right now. I know my student loans are going to be due in a few months. If I don't go back to school next year I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and use up my grace period. If I can find a full-time job before repayment starts, I can start paying the loans off. I think this may be a better alternative than wasting time in school with no direction on what I want to do.
I would like to hear what you guys think. Do you think it's best for me to take time off to get my life together or just continue?
Doubtful that's an option. The services standards are actually quite high for education. Wild land firefighter however seems to have a strong demand and more interest in where you're going than where you come from.
OP, talk to your mom about the social anxiety and the ADHD. You need to be evaluated. Perhaps, while you're still in school (barely), you can get free evaluations at the health center. Give that a shot, unless you mom can pay for the necessary testing. At least take that step, before you drop out; go to the counseling/mental health care center at your school, and tell them you need some evaluations. Make an appointment with a counselor to discuss it. They are there for you. Your tuition that you're in debt for, is paying for this "free" service. Use it while you can.
Yes, getting a job to pay off your loans, get help for your issues, and then reassessing after a couple of years, is a good idea. BUT: what kind of job would you get? How would you get a job without a college degree, and without even any customer service experience? Stocking shelves at a grocery store? Think about what jobs you'd be qualified to do. You might be able to get some experience by volunteering at your local food co-op, if there is one in your town. Do you have any office skills? Microsoft Office? If not, community college may be a better idea for you. You can look at their vocational programs, and see if anything appeals to you, just for future reference. Even to volunteer, you need some basic skills.
Please keep us updated as to your decisions. Also, please let your mom know what's going on
OP, talk to your mom about the social anxiety and the ADHD. You need to be evaluated. Perhaps, while you're still in school (barely), you can get free evaluations at the health center. Give that a shot, unless you mom can pay for the necessary testing. At least take that step, before you drop out; go to the counseling/mental health care center at your school, and tell them you need some evaluations. Make an appointment with a counselor to discuss it. They are there for you. Your tuition that you're in debt for, is paying for this "free" service. Use it while you can.
Yes, getting a job to pay off your loans, get help for your issues, and then reassessing after a couple of years, is a good idea. BUT: what kind of job would you get? How would you get a job without a college degree, and without even any customer service experience? Stocking shelves at a grocery store? Think about what jobs you'd be qualified to do. You might be able to get some experience by volunteering at your local food co-op, if there is one in your town. Do you have any office skills? Microsoft Office? If not, community college may be a better idea for you. You can look at their vocational programs, and see if anything appeals to you, just for future reference. Even to volunteer, you need some basic skills.
Please keep us updated as to your decisions. Also, please let your mom know what's going on
Great advice.
IMHO, not everyone is ready for college right out of HS. I knew someone who dropped out of HS as sophomore/junior. He had been getting Ds and Fs in all of his classes. He then did manual labor jobs for a few years, but decided that he did not want to do that for the rest of his life.
He finally got his GED and started college about age 22. He received straight As in college, graduated with honors and has been a very successful engineer for the last few decades. Even if he would have somehow managed to squeak though HS and actually graduate there is no way that he would have been ready for college at age 18. But, those extra years of maturity and life experiences really made a difference for him.
OP, talk to your mom about the social anxiety and the ADHD. You need to be evaluated. Perhaps, while you're still in school (barely), you can get free evaluations at the health center. Give that a shot, unless you mom can pay for the necessary testing. At least take that step, before you drop out; go to the counseling/mental health care center at your school, and tell them you need some evaluations. Make an appointment with a counselor to discuss it. They are there for you. Your tuition that you're in debt for, is paying for this "free" service. Use it while you can.
Yes, getting a job to pay off your loans, get help for your issues, and then reassessing after a couple of years, is a good idea. BUT: what kind of job would you get? How would you get a job without a college degree, and without even any customer service experience? Stocking shelves at a grocery store? Think about what jobs you'd be qualified to do. You might be able to get some experience by volunteering at your local food co-op, if there is one in your town. Do you have any office skills? Microsoft Office? If not, community college may be a better idea for you. You can look at their vocational programs, and see if anything appeals to you, just for future reference. Even to volunteer, you need some basic skills.
Please keep us updated as to your decisions. Also, please let your mom know what's going on
As far as what kind of job I would be able to get, since I've never worked I can probably only get an entry level job. Probably working as a cashier, waiter, etc. I would probably have to apply to places that's always hiring new people and training such as grocery stores, supermarkets, department stores, restaurants, etc. I do have volunteer experience even though I haven't done any volunteer work in a year now. The volunteer work I've done is Habitat for Humanity, soup kitchens and environment clean-ups. I did all of this volunteer work when I was in school. I was apart of an organization at my school where we did this volunteer work. I do have a reference for all of this. I don't have any office skills.
I agree. They will give him a job, put money in his pocket, and help him pay off his student loans. I think he should enlist into the Air Force instead though
You should never have gone to college. Unfortunately, that's the mistake most parents and society make.
They THINK their kid knows what they want to do and/or is going to be successful and graduate at age 22 with a job making 65K a year doing 'whatever' and they can brag to all their friends.
Most kids at 18 don't know what kind of job they want. And can you blame them? Most 18 year old kids have never worked a full time job ... obviously.
Drop out of school. And I'm not saying that just because you're doing poorly. Even if you were getting straight As, you still don't know what you want to do. And it'd still be somewhat useless. Get your a@@ out there and find out what you like to do and do not like to do. Take personality tests. Volunteer as was suggested. The idea that taking a year, or a few years, or 10 years off will put you behind everybody else is just ludicrous.
You have your whole life ahead of you to figure out what you want to do. I envy you and wish somebody had given me the same advice...
“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked. ‘Where do you want to go?’ was his response. ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.”
Sounds like you need a mental break. It happens. I skipped a lot of semesters at school, wound up finishing my undergrad later than my peers. Now I'm 1/2 way through graduate school after taking 11 years between undergrad and grad school.
Have you thought about getting into the trades?
I wouldn't look into the military right now. If you don't like it, you don't have the option of just quitting/dropping out. You will regret it and it can have life long consequences.
You might not even be qualified for military service.
As far as what kind of job I would be able to get, since I've never worked I can probably only get an entry level job. Probably working as a cashier, waiter, etc. I would probably have to apply to places that's always hiring new people and training such as grocery stores, supermarkets, department stores, restaurants, etc. I do have volunteer experience even though I haven't done any volunteer work in a year now. The volunteer work I've done is Habitat for Humanity, soup kitchens and environment clean-ups. I did all of this volunteer work when I was in school. I was apart of an organization at my school where we did this volunteer work. I do have a reference for all of this. I don't have any office skills.
Thank you for your advice.
That's great that you have references from your volunteer work. Surprisingly, most cashier jobs require prior experience in customer service. I see grocery stores training new people all the time, so I asked some of those new people, and they said they had years of experience in customer service. Job listings for cashiers usually say 6 months prior experience is required. You can check Indeed.com in your area, to get an idea of what jobs are out there, for relatively unskilled people. If you have a car and a clean driving record, you can do delivery jobs. Maybe UPS. Delivery jobs wouldn't be a problem for you, with your social anxiety. Customer service jobs might be. Let's see.... Whole Foods and other grocery stores have backroom stocking jobs; that would minimize your social anxiety.
I guess your school is out for the summer, so using the counseling center to get your ADHD evaluated isn't an option? Or if you have a week left, you still might be able to get tested for that.
Good luck!
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