Immaturity rant

So I’m graduating from high school next month, and I’m reveling in the thought of leaving behind those slack-jawed glassy-eyed morons who believe their only purpose in life is to display their flawlessness to the world.

I’m sure this is true anywhere, but the level of immaturity at my school is disgusting. If it’s not the typical “cool” clique bragging about getting wasted Friday night, it’s the people who think they’re somehow more sophisticated than everyone else because they’re taking a college class during HS (most likely to help them get into college since they’re utter idiots)…

…One girl I know complains vehemently every time my school changes our daily schedule because it’ll make her late to her college class in the afternoon. Life doesn’t revolve around you…suck it up, you’ll have tougher things to deal with later…

…The same thing applies to those people who equate their poor performance in school to a “lack of effort.” Face the facts: you’re idiots. Any functioning brain cells you may once have had were long ago rendered useless by alcohol…

…Which I predict will be the downfall of fully half of my graduating class. Many of them are already raging alcoholics. What really bothers me about this is that, as I said earlier, they wear their liquor fixation as a badge of honor, and other people revere them for it.

The only reason I’d be happy to see these people again is if they were living in the gutter, begging me for some money so they can feed whatever addiction they’re currently slave to. Maybe then I’d be assured that they’ve paid for their idiocy.
End rant.

I’m not saying I’m wise and wonderful beyond my years, but I think other people can empathize with me here. Am I being unreasonable or self-righteous, or are people really that moronic and immature?

Whatever the consensus, I’m glad I got that off my chest. Now I’d better submit it before I lose my nerve…

You know, it’s funny, I had the same attitude as you. Then I went to college.

College taught me a lot, namely, that everyone has a lot of strange quirks, interests, and aberrations, and it these differences are what makes college such a fascinating and liberating time. You’ll meet a lot of people who act like they went to your hich school, and you’ll meet people who are way different. And hopefully you will appreciate them both.

Other than that, your rant feels a little pithy and self-serving. I hope when the day comes that you see one of your classmates in the gutter with emaciated figure and glassy eyes, you will not ignore them in a pitiless fashion. That’s simply inhumanly cold.

I’m not sure if “pithy” was the right word. I’m not an English major, dammit.

Oh and the alcohol probably killed the brain cells responsible for that knowledge :slight_smile:

The good news is, these people are no longer your peer group.

The bad news is, they’re about to become your employers.

Okay, I got carried away. I didn’t mean I want them condemned to such a life, and if they were I wouldn’t ignore them…but I do want them to realize that the path they’re taking (I’m specifically talking about the alcoholics here) won’t exactly be beneficial to them in the future.

Wow, reading back over my original post, that last comment does look pretty bad. I guess I was writing in a fit of passion. Mostly I wanted to just let off some frustration.

And yes, I suppose it is pithy and self-serving. Maybe I’m just a hypocrite.

Thanks for commenting, whatever the case.

If you are going to college to get away from people drinking you are in for a lot of disappointment.

Not hypocritical, really. I understand the attitude entirely. I didn’t understand the whole drinking phenomenon until I tried it, and after that, I didn’t look down on those who did. Not saying you have to do it to coexist, just that there’s a side to it you may not be seeing.

Alcoholism (in the dangerous clinical sense) surely has a negtive correlation with good grades, but substance abuse isn’t really the monster many think it is. Just as an example, I’ve had several brilliant teachers who did excessive amounts of drugs in their day. The man who pioneered aseptic surgery, one of the most brilliant surgeons of his time (William Stewart Halstead) was hopelessly addicted to heroin.

FWIW, I think you’re pretty smart and mature for your age. For example:

Truer words were never spoken. Good on you for figuring that out early. :cool:

My complaint isn’t about people drinking…it’s about people drinking to establish a “cool” image.

I’m hoping people in college and beyond don’t feel the need to embellish their image as much as HS students do.

Misguided hope? Maybe, but hey, I’m a hopeful spirit, as you can tell.

Dang it. I didn’t mean to concentrate so much on drinking in my rant. :slight_smile:

Where do you think college students come from?

Y’know… taking a college class during HS can be a SMART thing to do. It means you have one less class to deal with during that stressful first year of college. It also means you have those credits and are one class down on what you need to get your degree.

My former HS offers college classes (English and Psych when I was there) at a reduced fee that were good at any college/uni in the province. So not only did you get your classes for less, you had less classes to take when you got to college full time.

It doesn’t make them more sophisticated, but it’s certainly not the move of an utter idiot!

I’m sorry for my incoherency. The reason I said that about college classes is that I was referring (not very clearly) to people I actually know who took classes for the reason I stated, and who act superior because of it. I didn’t mean to imply that taking a college class was a stupid thing to do, by any means.

But in college it’s not as big a deal. In HS it’s one of those things you’re idolized for because you’re seen as a rebel…

Also, there’s a four-year difference between a HS senior and a typical college senior, which I hope would translate to some increase in maturity.

If they’re taking it because they know their weaknesses, that’s hardly stupid either.

But I think it’s silly if they do it just to seem sophisticated.

No he wasn’t. And it’s Halsted.

He was hopelessly addicted to cocaine. So he went to what passed as a treatment center in those days. They managed to break his cocaine addiction with morphine. He spent the rest of his life hopelessly addicted to morphine instead of cocaine. At the time, morphine was much more socially acceptable than cocaine.

And Halsted’s addiction probably contributed to his premature death. I went to med school with Halsted’s last Chief Surgical Resident’s grandson. He spoke of how his grand-dad gave Halsted his multiple morphine shots during his final illness, to ward off withdrawal.

More on “Billy Boy” Halsted: http://www.mostlyweb.com/portfolio/hopkins/jhPages/halsted.html

The thing is, they act sophisticated in spite of the fact that the reason they take the classes is because of their academic shortcomings. It’s kind of ironic, really.

Sleep time for me…thanks for everyone’s comments.

Sigh…I knew, the minute I read the mouse-over except from the OP, that within three replies, someone was going to say “Well, you’ve just proved your own immaturity.” Instead, it was the first reply.

Is it really so terrible that NT doesn’t think competitive drinking is cool? My college was overrun with students who would brag about how soon they passed out, after how tremendous an amount of alcohol in how short a time. Or how much and how violently they’d thrown up. Or how they’d injured themselves, or what kind of property damage they’d done, or how big their memory gap was, or how close they’d come to getting arrested. Fools! That’s not how you’re supposed to drink! A mature person drinks to enjoy an evening, not to ruin their life and their liver.

Attention whore. Everyone must know that she’s taking a college class. She’s gonna be late for her college class! Did she mention that she’s taking a college class?

Chin up, NT. And a word to the wise before you start college:

Your first month (and especially during orientation week), you’ll meet a lot of upperclassmen, and a few fellow freshmen, who have an agenda and want to convert you to their way of thinking. Just smile and nod. They may have good ideas, or they may be full of it. Either way, don’t make any hasty changes to your own lifestyle or world view. Gather experience and decide what works for you.

I think you’re growing up too fast. There are kids who enjoy their younger years (granted, getting drunk all the time isn’t the best way), and their actions now don’t necessarily indicate that they are going to party hard until they drop hopelessly in the gutter.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with you wanting to avoid that, either. Kudos to you. :smiley:

But I don’t think you should begrudge them the carefree (albeit drunken) days of their youth.

There’s lots of time for one to grow up, dry up, and take on responsibility.

My only advice to you is to not become like a girl I knew in high school.

She would rant about pretty much the same things you ranted about. After a while, it got* really* old. After a while it started coming off as bitter.

I can understand that you don’t like a particular subset of people at your high school. I was never a drinker and never really hung out with the club crowd. I didn’t, however, consider them ‘idiots’ just because their idea of fun was different than mine. I realize that you posted in a fit, but you come off as "I am sooo much better than them. I’ll be frank with you, I don’t know who is the more obnoxious person between the two.

One thing that age has taught me: You have to ask yourself, “Does it really matter?”. If their actions aren’t affecting you, why the hell should you care? Don’t extend energy toward what you percieve as negative traits in other people, especially when it doesn’t affect you, because you will never ever win this battle. As Miller pointed out, these people will eventually become your employers and co-workers.

Don’t waste your life away begrudging others, especially over silly things. As the cliche goes, Life is too short.

You know NT some things never change. This type of shit was going on in the 60’s when I was in High School. Lots of bragging about how much or how many beers one consumed over the binge drinking weekend. It does get quite old after a bit. Most of these kids turned out OK thankfully, but a few ended up hopelessly addicted to alcohol. Its very sad but I was able to get away from those folks after graduating.

Ah, but hell those 3 years between!

And sadly, beyond high school, beyond college, out there in the business world…

There will be the person who complains that today’s late conference call is going to make them late for dinner.

There will be the slackers who make no effort at all, and experience further brain cell atrophy, and yet mysteriously stay employed.

But, it’s all part of life… I guess we all have remember “suck it up, you’ll have tougher things to deal with later…”