Any success stories?

[reinhard]

Anyone want to share some success stories? Such as maybe you were a C- student in high school, but now you are on the top of the world or you struggled finciainally a lot because parents died or wouldn't help you with tuition and now you are making it big?

[Kleene]

I have such a success story. I could never have dreamt to stand where I stand now. Just hope that posting this is the right decision. My story is a bit extreme perhaps, but I suppose that it is far from unique.

 

I was ahead in school and struggled hard having to do work years beyond my level. (I live in a country where home schooling is not allowed.) I was terribly lazy and still a straight A student. I hardly ever did a thing. I am so embarrassed looking back, but it did not know any better at the time. Socially it was okay (in elementary and high school, anyway), so most of the time I coped though I developed a severe social anxiety due to not being acknowledged. There have been times that I would get depressed. I hit rock bottom in 11th grade, despite being in a very good gifted program. I always tried to find challenges somewhere (extracurriculars, taking additional courses, early college entrance, but also not attending classes, not studying for tests; the whole range of both desired and undesired behaviors), but in 11th grade it was just over. There were no more advanced classes to take, no more classes not to attend. I then decided to skip 12th grade all together. Not because college/university would necessarily be better, since at the time I was convinced I was "just not a student type". I skipped 12th grade, because college could be no worse.

 

And it was not worse. It was better. I could study something that really interested me. For the first time I was not by far the most advanced student and that was (literally) a life saver. I learnt all these things I never learnt in school: taking notes, asking questions, persistance, spending time on something. Somehow I largely overcame my social anxiety. I have no idea how that happened, but I do know that 'fitting in' at least sómewhere is crucial for people. I had never fit in anywhere before, so this was a new experience for me. You can imagine how ambivalent I am about leaving my current institution.

 

I now hold two acceptances for Master's at world top 10 universities. I have this surreal "WTH just happened?" feeling. I cannot help but being very grateful to all my teachers and everyone who believed in me and tried their best to accommodate me. It is thanks to them that I made it through school in the first place. I am very happy to see my school continue to make progress in gifted education. I know for a fact that if I had not been allowed to skip 12th grade, at the very least I would have been nowhere near where I am now. It is very likely that I would have dropped out.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Kleene

[gellert]

I was a very poor high school student, mostly because I was going through a rebellious phase and never turned any homework in.

 

I also have a life-threatening genetic condition that hospitalizes me frequently.  It was quite severe when I was in college and so I have multiple semester withdrawals on my transcript.  Around the same time, I had to testify at the trial of my childhood abuser, which was one of the most stressful events of my life.  

 

Even so, I graduated from a top university with a high GPA and GREs.  I've been accepted into an excellent Ph.D. program.  In contrast with high school me, who was considering dropping out of school, or college me, who expected to die before graduation, I've definitely advanced a lot.

[unbrokenthread]

Survived multiple kinds of childhood abuse and domestic violence. Wasn't doing well during--I had a 1.8 GPA in middle school at one point, and got kicked out of a charter arts school because of it--but here we are.

I hate the "everything happens for a reason" line of argument--hate it with cold-blooded fury--but I've nonetheless tried to use the shitty things in my life to propel me, and that's been a pretty good approach. You have to work with the cards you are dealt.

There have been some serious costs; I've had to make some tough decisions about how much contact with my family that I can really handle (and it's not much, despite the fact that I *adore* my big sister). But it's also been good for finding out my priorities. Multiple people have remarked about my drive and curiosity, which will (I hope) serve me well in grad school.

Mostly I've been holding onto this idea since I was a kid, that life would be awesome if I could just live it on my own terms, and I am, and it is. I feel like I'm living in a fairy tale most days. I've worked really damn hard to get here and I'm so happy and so grateful to get the chance to do what I love at the graduate level.

[reinhard]

I love these underdog stories! So inspiring.