dw flec everyone has those moments
bro my science teacher literally gave me such a bad grade for proj
i literally had to do it until 2 am
and i worked rly hard on it
sob
also im actually so clueless of wat to do when i grow up
everyone asks me
and everyone else can give a perfect answer
but not me

Not me playing tetr.io 5 minutes before a test, getting a C on it, saying "eh" to myself, and then continuing to play tetr.io after the test

:/

I think different people have different ideas of success, and some people don't have any idea what they want to do at all. It's not unheard of to have people switch majors half a dozen times during college.

Normally I'm against making broad general statements but I'll say it anyway (there could be exceptions so take with grain of salt):

>> Peer comparisons are always bad

Everyone does things at a different pace. Some people know very early what they want to do. Some people don't know until they're very old. High school is meant to give you the foundations to let you succeed in almost any field at all, and College is supposed to give you the platform and opportunities to allow you to succeed in the things you want to succeed in. It's absolutely not necessary to have a full life plan in high school. It's perfectly fine to have absolutely no idea what you are going to do. Just focus on your schoolwork (kek) and build that foundation, both academically and socially, that you'll need later in life.

And here's another broad general statement:

>> Living in the future is barely living at all

fr flec like i really have no clue whats gonna happen in life what im gonna be or whatever
also as someone who cares about their grades too much... i feel so bad for ur friend
teacher such a b tho like :sob:

honestly im just kind of hoping future me will be wise enough to make a decision but like
if you have something too solid and you always rely and look at that path then what if something happens that makes that path not possible..?
like lifes always gonna throw sh at you and you can never plan for that

point is frick you future me you decide whats gonna happen and hopefully i dont end up working at a mcdonalds for most of my life

thank you all of you!

@ming i thought about this but isn't focusing on the future better than both present and past?
i mean it sucks sometimes
but it's better than focusing on the past for obvious reasons
but for present if you don't focus on the future you're just going to be living to live, not to have dreams or to know what you want to do later or something.
in the end, living in the future helps you live in the present the best possible way. like me thinking of the future when i'm going to join my dream vball team is what motivates me to go to the gym and do leg workouts even though it pains me every single time

omg the tetris thing is so real tho

dont live in the past cause like living in the future is kinda not desireable though its still good to plan ahead
if youve got the present under control then you can move on to preparation for the future yknow?

you ever read wings of fire? (fantasy series)

Here's an analogy. Imagine you're running on a long road with some kind of treasure at the end of the road. Huge amounts of treasure. Whatever you want. Idk, love, happiness, all that kind of stuff.

That's an oversimplification of a journey of "success" in life. Would it be better to focus on the running, or on the treasure?

This is oversimplified, so let's make it a little more realistic.

That treasure you were just imagining and thinking about? You can't see it. You can never predict the future. You have no idea what that treasure looks like.

Still a little oversimplified, so let's make it a little more realistic.

That road you're looking at? You can't see that either. It's nighttime and you can see about 2 feet in front of you. You are running entirely in the dark. The road can twist and turn and stop abruptly or run you into a wall and you will have no way to change the road to a straight one, because life's road is never straight.

Dang, that kind of sucks. You're basically running around without any idea of where you're going or what you're even running for.

There will always be people who will continue looking forward and straining their eyes to see 3 feet ahead instead of 2, and there will always be people who put some kind of imaginary "treasure" in their head even though they have no idea what that treasure looks like.

But if those people just take some time to look---not ahead, but left or right---then they'll see amazing scenery. trees. grass. river. blue sky. puffy clouds.

And that's life. If you think too hard, and too specifically about what your idea of "success" then you will surely be disappointed because there is almost no way that you will achieve that idea of success. It's okay to have goals like "be rich" or "be happy" or "get married" or whatever and things like

is still all good, it's a broad direction rather than a vivid image of the treasure
but the more time you spend in the future, the more vividly you are imagining the treasure that could be all wrong. Also, who said that success necessarily implies becoming a surgeon (even if the person really likes being a surgeon) life could throw anything at you and suddenly you're on an entirely new road with different treasure and you're not a surgeon. life goes on.

we can try to predict or control the future all we want but the reality is that we are awful at it. at the drop of a hat, people can fall into depression or become homeless or get divorced or any other kind of prototype we established for unsuccessful

It's good to have goals, but you'd be much better off living in the present, however painful it is, than to focus on a false vision of a rainbow future and then have that shattered by outside circumstances

If you've got your eyes set on North, and you only want to go on roads that lead you North

and life throws you on a roda that heads east

you could just fall into a ditch

in my school, where almost everyone cares about grades, they always tell us to "stop caring about your grades excessively - it's just a number."
yet, it's not just a number. in some level, grades define who we are. they determine our success in the aspect that they are key factors for colleges. and for me, even if I excessively care about my grades, a mere number, have absolutely no clue what I want to become in the future.

I'd say to definitely aim for a good grade (and keep up your good work) because they're important. yes, you can still succeed if you don't go to a top college, but trying to climb up in a work scenario would be much harder than doing well academically, going into a top college, and finding an ideal job.
but really, we all procrastinate, and not caring about grades doesn't mean you will fail.

i suppose it's about the dedication you prove of yourself i guess... i've heard of people who took 0 ap classes but still got into amazing colleges, and people who took like 15 and didn't get into a good one.