Hey comrades, I’m thinking about getting a degree. About 7-8 months ago I made a post asking about the process of obtaining citizenship in China and I was met with the expected response that I should continue my education if I wished to stay there long-term. Initially I dismissed the advice and just put away the idea of living in China long-term, but in the past few months I think I’ve come around to continuing my education.

This is a big deal for me, I dropped out of highschool when I was 18 and just two years from graduation because the school I was going to would shut down and I couldn’t stomach starting over again at a new school in the middle of the George Floyd Riots and the COVID-19 Pandemic. I eventually tried to finish my highschool diploma but when the school went under a bunch of my credits just vanished into thin air and I was looking at another 3½ years of highschool so I gave up again.

Now I’m 23 and with the support of my comrades on the commune I am finally feeling confident about picking up my schooling again, I’m planning on biting the bullet on the GED (which I should have done in the first place instead of going for the highschool diploma) and applying for college.

I’m looking at mycology, I’ve had an interest in it since I was 18 and I love microscopic organisms. Fungi are extremely interesting to me and I’d love to learn more about them in ways that are not from the pervasive pop-science or spiritual/psychedelic angles that dominate in the West.

I just wanted to share this with others, I’m excited and I’ve already started crawling through my old textbooks!

    • Catfish [she/her]@lemmygrad.mlOP
      0·
      6 months ago

      Yeah the school’s grants were embezzled by some dude and then they didn’t meet the minimum amount of students so they were shut down. It was a pretty awesome school besides that, I enjoyed learning there.

  • Luden [comrade/them]@lemmy.ml
    0·
    6 months ago

    I dropped out of school when I was 16 and also went back for my GED, starting community college at 23.

    If you havent looked, a nearby community college or workforce development center may offer free or low cost GED classes, which may also reimburse part of the test cost. That really helped when I hadn’t done any math for years.

    My experience at community college was extremely supportive and I don’t know that I would have been successful at a university without it. If you go that route, youll probably run into a lot other folks your age or even older. I had a 70 year man in one of my classes and a 50 year old man in a few who wanted to change careers.

    College changed my life and has allowed me to surpass all expectations anyone had of me, so I hope you’re able to get the same sort of experience and take advantage of all the people and resources available to you.