BF2S Forums Your Life ( 21 and older)

Um, yes.
Ive never smoked in my life. Although alcohol is a different story
I did well at school (physics, computer studies and art).
Im now an apprentice and detail steelwork. I get paid to go to university by my company (and they pay all of the tutition fees) - so I will get a Civil Engineering degree for free, which I can use to become a fully fledged structural engineer.
My subjects really helped in getting that job - they are vital towards it...

It's that, or be like half of my mates - fuck up at school at work in supermarkets stacking shelves for about half of the wage for the rest of your life.
Do you really wana work in a Burger King for over 40 years of your life?

Last edited by Snake (2007-01-29 13:54:34)

i have posted what i am a couple of times now, but it's nice to reiterate. Bachelor of Sciences in Mechanical Engineering. grades and knowledge mean everything to me. i busted ass all four years in college, and it payed off. i did party, but not as much as my liberal arts friends. decent high school grades allowed me to get into a good mechanical engineering program. so yeah, good grades in high school do matter. i plan on starting my masters soon and i've passed the Fundamentals of Engineering exam (8 hours of engineering hell).

i am currently a sales/application engineer at an electronics company. a non-engineer could not work this position. however, if i didn't want to do this, i could work on designing aircraft, cars, or mems, like a couple of my friends do.

basically, the more knowledge you have, the more options you have.

2tuff wrote:

Well im a senior in HS now....18....and all throught my life ive been told:
"Get good grades"
"Dont smoke pot"
etc.

What i wanna know (from those who have gone through it) has your high school grades/choices affected your life and your job now?

Examples would be great.


Tuff

Failure at these two things may lead you into a life of failure.  How?

(1)  Unless you are brilliant, getting good grades IS ONLY accomplished because you learn self-discipline and a solid work ethic.  Think of your work ethic like muscles - if it is strong then it can lift much over an extended period of time.  If it is weak, then you get tired quickly and can't apply yourself to a task for a long period of time.

I have never encountered someone who learned a strong work-ethic as an adult ... it is learned while you are young.  If your work ethic is weak, you will likely end up in low-end, low-paying, low-satisfaction jobs  - you may have all the desire in the world for something better, but you won't apply yourself for an extended period of time because your weak work ethic is easily exhausted.

By the way, a brilliant person with a poor work ethic will also struggle, but in a different way.  The book "Your Own Worst Enemy" by K.W. Christian describes this situation.

(2)  Smoking pot may or may not affect you in the long run.  It really depends upon why you smoke it.  If you do it to cope with life or escape from pressures, then you are in big trouble ... life will get MUCH HARDER as you get older, and pot will not be strong enough to counter your stress.  So, you will likely turn to other, more powerful "escapes."  Like a work ethic, you need to learn to handle pressure and stress in constructive ways.

I got 13 GCSE's graded C and above, various NVQ's and joined the Army... Sounds crazy, but since I joined 7 years ago, I have obtained several qualifications I can use on "Civvy Street",  including instructional quals.

mp30 wrote:

Being the Valedictorian of my high school made college nice and free. Actually it cost negative money, they ended up giving me extra.

well I know people who were at the top one percent of my class or top ten people very smart ones when they went to college, they ended up doing horribly because of all the partying and drinking and stuff like that so there are going to be a lot of things that are going to keep u away from studying

Do the best you possibly can in any given situation with the abilities you`ve got and there is a big chance you will feel successful and that`s the most important thing !

For some that would be to pursue a career ladder for others it would be to have just enough to get by and then there are all the inbetweens, ask yourself 1 question once in a while: Will i ever regret doing this or will i regret not doing this ?

2tuff wrote:

Well im a senior in HS now....18....and all throught my life ive been told:
"Get good grades"
"Dont smoke pot"
etc.

What i wanna know (from those who have gone through it) has your high school grades/choices affected your life and your job now?

Examples would be great.

EDIT: Oh yeah, ive got a 3.3 GPA....not sure where that falls on the "smart chart" and if that will get me anywhere.

Tuff

remember that whatever it is you wind up doing needs to make you happy. im not saying that i would make knives for free, but i started from a hobby, it makes me happy. keep that in mind as you search for an answer.

Always wondered how well some people fared who dropped out of HS. I kind of, well, don't like my school at all. Too young to drop out though, not sure if I would though because then my parents would kill me =/

If you don't like studying, I suggest learning how to play an instrument or sing, get really good at it, make your own distinctive style, and next thing you know you could be rich like Metallica, or James Blunt (don't particularly like him but he certainly knew how to swoon all the girls in the US into buying his albums).

I'm pretty smart, I'm just lazy as fuck. I hate doing my history work for instance. If I get a job as the head designer for some engineering company, what the fuck good will knowing the history of *x peoples* do for me? Likewise, if I became a musician, what good would knowing how to solve complex number equations (not a hard equation, I mean shit like |x|=someshit and 5i and all that crap) do for me?

I dont want to end up like those bums on the streets of DC, hell I don't want to end up like those folks working menial jobs for the rest of their lives in crappy apartments with cockroaches and a prostitute neighbor whom you hear each night through the paper-thin walls. I'd love to end up the CEO of Google or something, but god damn all that work you have to do =S might as well just get a nice inheritance or win the lottery.

I Didnt try hard in school.  But I'd say my average life is due more to lack of ambition.  If you try hard in life, for the most part, you'll do well.  Maybe with as sprinkle of luck, as in sickness and freak accidents don't fuck shit up, trying hard will get you places.

Uhh, 9th grade, have been smoking for about 2 and a half years, used to smoke weed, GPA is 3.2 or something like that out of a possible 4. Umm yeah, I guess I dont qualify as being over 21 haha.

Commie Killer wrote:

Uhh, 9th grade, have been smoking for about 2 and a half years, used to smoke weed, GPA is 3.2 or something like that out of a possible 4. Umm yeah, I guess I dont qualify as being over 21 haha.

Why have I thought you were like 18 all this time?

Hurricane wrote:

Always wondered how well some people fared who dropped out of HS. I kind of, well, don't like my school at all. Too young to drop out though, not sure if I would though because then my parents would kill me =/

If you don't like studying, I suggest learning how to play an instrument or sing, get really good at it, make your own distinctive style, and next thing you know you could be rich like Metallica, or James Blunt (don't particularly like him but he certainly knew how to swoon all the girls in the US into buying his albums).

I'm pretty smart, I'm just lazy as fuck. I hate doing my history work for instance. If I get a job as the head designer for some engineering company, what the fuck good will knowing the history of *x peoples* do for me? Likewise, if I became a musician, what good would knowing how to solve complex number equations (not a hard equation, I mean shit like |x|=someshit and 5i and all that crap) do for me?

I dont want to end up like those bums on the streets of DC, hell I don't want to end up like those folks working menial jobs for the rest of their lives in crappy apartments with cockroaches and a prostitute neighbor whom you hear each night through the paper-thin walls. I'd love to end up the CEO of Google or something, but god damn all that work you have to do =S might as well just get a nice inheritance or win the lottery.

actually, music involves lots of math. What with the counts and all.

Same goes for engineering, ESPECIALLY if your a designer. Knowing what will work in an area and being able to understand your clients is key. Unless your structural. Then its just nuts and bolts. Which is the most important part.  Ask the french architect who had two buildings collapse...

I used to think computers were all i needed to know. Turns out, paying attention in history, econ and Spanish were usefull too. You would be surprised where the most random knowledge comes in handy.