Let me start with the basics.

You can go to college
or be a bird photographer
or go to Japan
or be a gymnastics coach
now
or in 2 years
or in 5 years
or not at all.

You can go to UIC
or Triton
or Soka University
or almost any of the 5,000 other colleges in the US
or you can live on a houseboat
or have babies
or fur babies
or be a Stoic Marxist living in a studio apartment.
Why?
Because we tell kids lies.

You don’t need to sit in a classroom for 16--17--18 years, learning the things someone else says are important (who? the Texan legislature? A teacher you don’t even like?) and jump through all the hoops, to earn the life you want.
Take what works for you, if any of it does. Leave the rest.
You are not less because you are young.
You only have one life.
Ask the adults. They did it. Do they think it was worth it?
I’m not going to say it’s easy.
Sometimes it’s easier to do the expected thing. Sometimes it makes more sense.
But you don’t have to suffer every day for years to earn a decent job and a decent life.
If you like it, ok.
If it’s working for you or you love your football team or something...great.
(I still think you should be able to use the bathroom when you want to.)
But if you don’t…
You are not damaged.
You are not dumb.
You did not mess up.
You are having a normal reaction to a system that is not made for humans. It is made to rank people, so that employers and colleges can judge people more easily, and to babysit you and keep you out of the labor force.
It is made so only a few people can “succeed.” (Not everyone can be above average.) It’s made to make people work more like machines.
You’re not wrong. The system is wrong.
Just because some people like it doesn’t mean you’re broken.
Just because your brother does ok doesn’t mean you’re broken.
Just because you know 3 dozen awesome, caring teachers and one of them is your mom doesn’t mean you’re broken.

You’re enough.
You were born enough.
You will struggle and make mistakes and have to work on your weaknesses and learn many, many things. There will be hard days and hard years.
And none of that means you are broken.
Broken is a lie.

The truth is:
You can choose.
You can choose which credentials are important to you.
It is a lie that you need to go to middle school to go to high school, to go to high school to go to college, that you need to do all these things, one way, in order, to be a successful or good or happy person.
That is because it’s all based on a lie. A fundamental lie about how people learn, and how they have learned for millions of years.
You don’t need school to make you worthy of your life.
You need support. You need community. You need help.
But you don’t need someone to tell you who you are. You don’t always need a teacher. You are always learning. You can’t even help it.
No one else can tell you who you are even if you want them to.
No one has all the answers.
No one can guarantee your success or happiness.
You are the best judge of what you need.
You are the best judge of what you need to learn
and how you spend your time
and what kind of person you want to be.

I believe in you.
I know you can do it.
Achievement comes in many shapes.