Written by Nicholas Vetrisek
In early March, the coronavirus pandemic had begun to spread across America. There were still fewer than 1,000 cases in the country, so I thought it was all a massive overreaction. Everywhere you looked, places were shutting down.
Even though it’s a horrible thing to admit, I was hoping the crisis got slightly worse for one reason. The forced closure had happened in every school district except mine. If the entire crisis blew over and I was stuck at Madison High School the whole time while everyone else stayed home, I would not have been a very happy camper. My wish was answered, unfortunately a little too much.
As you can tell by the above paragraph, my time at school was not pleasant. Not because I was bullied (I wasn’t) or because I was unpopular (if I was, I didn’t notice), it was just simply the fact that I was spending more than 35 hours a week doing nothing that mattered.
I really tried to get something out of high school. Four sports (football, basketball, track, and wrestling), Academic League captain, orchestra, class-sponsored trip to Italy, some other club I was a part of that I forgot the name of, and so on. I did try, but the truth is that there was nothing for me to get out of high school. It felt like what we were doing was only there because some bureaucrat mandated it rather than it actually being necessary.
Throughout my entire schooling, we must have run through the same U.S. and World History curriculum at least three times, and there still was nothing to learn. We know everything there is to know about Mansa Musa or Shay’s Rebellion, but everyone in my class would probably draw a complete blank if you asked them what the Federal Reserve was or why it mattered.
In addition to the fact that we weren’t learning anything and were simply regurgitating information, I got completely sick of the culture of using college as bait to scare the youth. I learned early that the system was rigged because I saw multiple people that did everything right with perfect grades throughout high school and more leadership positions than I can count failing to even enter the Ivy League when they should have been shoo-ins for Harvard or Yale. Many of these poor kids will stress day and night about getting into their dream school when—little do they know—the position is already filled. Harvard will have no trouble finding 2,000 prodigies, elite athletes, or children of politicians to admit.
Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to avoid this rat race. On a whim, I bought an audiobook: Bachelor Pad Economics. In the book, the author mentions leaving school early. I didn’t know that was possible. I thought about it and realized that there was simply no other way. I could not take one more year. I will take the California High School Proficiency Exam on June 20. It was supposed to be March 20, but the coronavirus had other plans.
I like this new plan. It allows me to leave high school early and focus on the things that really matter, like starting my business, getting my home inspector certification, and working towards real goals—not just writing meaningless essays like in school. Leaving high school, I’m not bitter about the time I spent there, even though I did not enjoy it. I just put it behind me and focus on the important business at hand—the stuff I really care about.
