Might as well tell someone. I'm seriously considering dropping out of college and living on my own for a year or two. Family and personal circumstances are dragging me down, depressions affecting my academics and I'm in the middle of imploding. The thought of dropping out is scary and therapeutic at the same time. I just have to decide whether to go the route prescribed for me or try something different. I have a big decision coming up in my life and I'm still not sure what fork in the path I'll be taking.
I dropped out of college in 2010 after 1.9 years. If you ever want to talk, PM me. thenewgreen did something similar, but went back to finish when he hit a ceiling at this job. Here's some slightly related threads:
Quiet you! You're an exceptional person with exceptional skills and drive. Maybe rene is too; I wouldn't have a clue. But I do know that playing the odds, it's better to finish college than not. You shouldn't try to generalize your case to everyone, because most people can't do what you do (I mean this as the highest compliment, so don't read it as me scolding you for giving bad advice). Stay in school. Don't use drugs.
For the record, I wouldn't recommend taking the path either...but sometimes it works and certainly it helps to see other perspectives regardless. I'm still too young and it hasn't been long enough to know if I will regret the decision yet.
For the record, since I was shouted out, I would never suggest taking my route. I very much wish I had finished the first time around. I regret that decision.
I left for two years in the middle of my undergrad. It was a very positive experience for me. I don't think taking a year to get your shit together is necessarily a bad thing. But, a degree is a serious asset, so don't burn bridges. IMO sometimes when you are making a decision, it helps to imagine yourself 10-20 years down the line. That time will come sooner than you think. Try to consider what that future you would have preferred you to do. Best of luck.
Thank you for the response. Do you mind me asking what you did for those two years and why you decided to take the break in the first place? My tentative plan if I drop out is to save up for a few months and then try to get my old job touring with Cirque du Soleil around the country. I feel like future me would appreciate the experience, even if that makes me delay my "career" a few years.
I worked in a hardware store in Cambridge MA, partied very hard, and enrolled at the Harvard Extension School, taking a classes on James Joyce, Playwriting, Chemistry, and Neurobiology. I don't think I completed the last two. I walked out of my Neurobiology lab final because I was about as prepared for it as you likely are at this moment. I finished up the hiatus with a road trip across the US on which I read Broca's Brain and Gödel, Escher, Bach. The time was transformative for me. It wasn't until some time after I re-enrolled that I started making what I consider to be progress, but without that break, I wouldn't be where I am at today. I think the important thing for me, was that I knew all along that it was a temporary detour, and that it wasn't a lifestyle that I wanted to settle into. That was a freeing aspect of it.
I'm in the same boat as you, currently I'm unable to pay the remaining tuition and I'm under the threat of being "kicked out" (its kinda of a gray area). Even if i do pay this semester, it makes me think on how I am going to be able to pay next semester and the one after that and so on. I'm terrified beyond words whats going to happen to me if it turns out that I can't continue my schooling. Its pretty much the only way that I can ensure to have any type of a successful future. Obviously there's other paths to take in life but just the thought of them is another weight in my already heavy head. The only that I know for sure is that it's how going to work out somehow, I don't how but it will even if it means delaying the path that I want. As for you, I could only wish you well and hope that everything goes well for you.