Was talking about home economics as a school subject in another thread and i realised that for me personally, taking “Food Tech” (cookery gcse) would have impacted me pretty negatively, even though generally speaking GCSEs don’t have much of an effect on the rest of your life or education.
So i wonder if anyone else has similar revelations? My post title is also phrased more openly than that, so it doesn’t have to be school specific, but i am mainly interested in things from the teenage time period.
Another choice i made in HS, for instance: i remember being really glad to have a medium-size group of friends in high school, but in retrospect they were terrible people and i realise that there would have been huge benefits to spending more time alone and in the library - yes, i genuinely look back and wish i studied more, lol. Something which I'm always told never happens.
This one “affects me as an adult” because i ended up entering adulthood with several friends determined to force their personality to be cool, relying on manosphere influencers to determine how they should behave; a lot of these people i didn’t want to know in the first place.
I resolved to go to college out of state. I did and it went well.
Can’t think of any offhand. Until college I pretty much just coasted along doing what was expected of me. Didn’t make any mold-breaking decisions until my 20s.
Does forgiving my ex for cheating on me count? I think I wouldn’t be so socially unhealthy if I stood up for what I believed in.
Sounds like an instantly actionable change. Get out thsre and speak your mind
In grade 12 i took calculus instead of an easy A in art class, i figured it might be useful if i went into engineering which i was vaguely interested in at the time and it helped when i did actually take calc in university
None. Every year at school was so boring I forgot what happened, but I don’t care since I had to learn everything on my own way after it happened.
:(
Don’t be sad, I forgave everyone and I now have almost the life I wanted :)
The decisions I made in high school were things like to take AP classes(I started college with enough credits to be a junior, so instead of studying I partied and ended up finishing late, so I guess that decision didn’t help me out), to read books(this one helped a ton, I was a voracious reader all my life and I can tell the difference against people who don’t read. I still read today and I’m pretty sure it’s much easier now), to play basketball (I have always been in better shape that my peers and I’ve maintained that into my late 30s).
The decisions I made like who to date, kinda still affect me today. I definitely didn’t chase after girls who there was a mutual interest, but rather girls who were “easy” targets for me. This decision has haunted my dating life. It took me nearly a decade of work to undo the damage of this habit. I am engaged now, but man I made it so much harder for myself.
The friends I chose in high school are a mixed bag. I am still friends with them to this day and for that I am very grateful. But at the same time, we all went through dramatic changes in viewpoints, politics. But a lot of the people I hung out with in high school I don’t even talk to anymore.
to read books(this one helped a ton, I was a voracious reader all my life and I can tell the difference against people who don’t read.
Saaame. Just yesterday, when you posted this, i met someone who told me she needed to start reading more - i wanted to tell her it’s fine and by reading at all she’s so far ahead of many people in keeping good habits for life. You can just tell how “well read” people are.
Actually reading for fun made me an academic minor deity compared to other kids, in the days of social media roll-out. Now I have to imagine how much better the kids who don’t/aren’t allowed to use AI are doing compared to those who do.
I definitely didn’t chase after girls who there was a mutual interest, but rather girls who were “easy” targets for me.
There might be a bit of this in all of our lives.
I had to choose an elective in 9th grade. Nothing looked interesting except for drafting, but I sucked at drawing. I took the drafting class.
Now it’s ~25 years later and I can go around town and point out the buildings I had a hand in designing.
I spent the entirety of my high school years dating one girl, at the time I was in the thick of things and didn’t realize it, but it wasn’t until we broke up that I realized how disfunctional we/she were and made me realize that my life with her was the exact opposite of everything I wanted out of life.
I spent five years with her and was on a fast track to a very different life, and I hopped off that train at the very last moment.
I refuse to argue with my wife, I try to be compassionate to those around me, strive for financial stability, and take care of my body and mind. All things I didn’t have with my first real girlfriend from high school.
Furthermore her constant pregnancy scares (yes I wore protection, every time.) taught me that I have zero urge to be a parent. Every time she told me she might be expecting, but subsequently refused to take a pregnancy test, my entire existence was filled with dread. I couldn’t contemplate a single possibility where having a child resulted in anything good.
That might be my biggest visible ‘scar’ from those days the circumstances of my life and finances are drastically different, but that revelation remains consistent.
My brother dated a gal that did that pregnancy scare crap. He was with her for three years. Even if you wanted a kid one day, at that time even, nobody wants a kid or pregnancy like that. Glad you got out of that situation. I only have experience with the person that did it to my brother but she was very controlling, abusive, and unhinged if she happened to not be the center of attention in whatever room she happened to grace with her presence.
So your lady is also child-free? That’s awesome and rare.
I refuse to argue with my wife.
I’m curious to get more details about this.
Probably most of them, at least in small “butterfly effect” ways. But mostly, I paid attention in class and remember how to think without having to have answers spoon fed to me. So many people I work with, of a variety of age groups, just seem to lack that skill.
You mentioned home economics, and I only had to take one semester as a required elective (yes, you read that right) and just kind of coasted through it. While I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I appreciate knowing how to use a sewing kit to make small repairs. I’ve patched several holes in my favorite “lounging around the house” robe and extended its life probably 3 times.
The things you THOUGHT were the most important, never matter at all, but everything that you considered background noise (school, family, jobs, morals and values) that shit will determine EVERYTHING that happens after high school.
typing has proved to be very useful. My classes allowed me to get college credit but I still went to college for five years. I sorta wish I would have grabbed as many non academic classes as possible. Maybe like one per semester or something.
I sorta wish I would have grabbed as many non academic classes as possible
Me too. i’m grateful for having taken art, for instance. Learned so much more about how to learn and be independent than i ever thought i would. Learned about referencing and analysing the influences in design. Actually knowing how to use a camera well has been useful very often in my post school life.
I wish i’d taken a lot more extracurricular stuff, too.
Having an abortion. It was probably the one good decision I made for several years, and the only one not informed by chaos and despair. I mourned on the day for years, but have had zero regrets.
Declining an ADHD-evaluation. I didn’t think having another diagnosis would help, nor understand the symptoms enough to think I had it, and thought it would only work against me because of the stigma (certain jobs, licenses etc). This is probably the one I regret the most. It could have changed so many of the other choices.
Those are probably the ones that single handedly would have impacted my life the most if made different.
certain jobs, licenses
Wait, how? I thought you’re legally allowed to hold the diagnosis from them, or am I misunderstanding?
It probably depends on where you’re from, but you for example couldn’t do military training or become a pilot with a diagnosis, and you needed a doctors note that you were reliably medicated for a long time to be allowed a driving learners permit. Some things have changed since then though, since this was decades ago.
Pretty crazy that they used to encourage people to stay undiagnosed and unmedicated to go into dangerous careers, rather than the other way around.
I didn’t start getting stoned out of my mind until my late 30s so I guess my brain developed normally.
Go me.
I smoked weed in high school, a fair bit lol, I was definitely considered one of the “stoner kids” of the school.
In my 20’s I stopped for the most part (only a joint here or there, maybe 2 or 3 times max per year), many of the kids I went to school with that were all anti drugs and anti drinking as kids became hard drug addicts in their 20’s.
Now in my 30’s I smoke again, much easier now that I can comfortably afford this habit
I didn’t start until I was almost 40! But I think I’ve more than caught up for lost time.
Huge win!!!
I chose languages instead of the science side because I was told to do so because I was a girl. So now I’m an unemployed translator instead of a doctor.
The elective classes I chose played a huge part in who I became. More so than friendships or cringey moments or anything that happened in the mandatory classes.
I took home ec and made crappy fried rice and sewed an apron with the pattern upside down. I thought it was lame at the time. Today I cook every day and I can sew well enough to fix things. They are ridiculously valuable skills.
I took electronics and made a dumb little siren that pitched up and down when you held down a button. Once every couple of years, I need some simple bit of electronics and I design a circuit board, etch it onto copper, and solder on some components. If I hadn’t chosen that elective classes, I’d think that sort of thing was super advanced.
The hilariously basic “IT” class (I made a PowerPoint slideshow with animation and fart sound effects) is probably responsible for me having a career in software development.
Give me back my fucking taco!
