Friday, June 6, 2008

Do you have any tips/advice for a high school junior trying to graduate early?

It would be a simple matter to ignore this query on the grounds that we are not psychologists or school counselors, but we are (I am) professors, teachers, and scholars.  Let me start by saying your life is going quite well.  You are using your intelligence and energy to prepare yourself to "contribute a verse," as Walt Whitman puts it.  It is too blithe to simply say "you must make some choices."  My advice is to taxonomize (sort out, arrange by type, categorize) your activities.  It is again a temptation to prioritize, but that is not so simple -- Are your musical interests separate from your social life? No.  Is your academic life separate from your career goals?  Certainly not.  But what about your "life-work"?  That is, who are you becoming? "Spreading yourself too thin" is a tired metaphor, a cliché that doesn't apply to your dilemma right now, although many adults will warn you against it.  Concretely, allow me to offer these suggestions to filter through your own sensibilities:  First, instead of taking online classes (cost?) simply be an "autodidact," a self-taught person who wanders through many fields of interest at your own pace and with your own dendritics (branches, offshoots, detours); secondly, befriend a teacher with whom you feel a connection.  Thirdly, write stuff down, to yourself alone; invent an image of yourself at 30 years old -- what are you doing for work? for relaxation? for the world?  Finally, quoting the Beatles, "life is what happens while you are making plans."  You're going to do just fine.  When things get sticky, follow Taylor Swift's advice: Shake it off. Good luck, eat healthy, and keep smiling.

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