How did you feel upon leaving school?

I really liked high school, I had a lot of friends, went to dances, football games and had a few boyfriends. I missed that after graduating but still had the same friends. I went away to college and then moved back home. I married my husband a couple of years later.
 

My high school was the summer school hub for many towns. Just out of 8th grade I took classes with a few friends to get a jump on high school. Many others were preparing for college. So many rich kids with cars and boats. It was a summer to remember. School in the morning, beach in the afternoon.
Things settled down by fall but many remained my friends for years. When I graduated I poked around NYC and took some classes. Others went off to college but I made out OK.
 
I'd moved counties just as I started High S - so that brought its challenges but all went well. Leaving school for the last time at that level was somewhat bizzare and confusing - emotionally - I knew what had to be done and did - find a job - easy - vacancies always. Old friendships hung in for 6mths or so and then slipped away. Sis and Bro had left home I think so it felt strange being alone with Ma and Pa - weird?

In the end I left and moved 300 kms south and never returned permanently again? It created some traumas in our family but they declined eventually. Would I do it again ; could I do it again? - I would have to really seems part of the evolutionary process!! How does that song go ? " Regrets I've had a few.....? - God I need my shrink again!
 

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I graduated from 8th grade in a K through 8 system. I was scared right away in high school, and didn't get the hang of it until my senior year, but I was happy to get it behind me. I adapted to college easily like a duck to water. Finally, adults! Well, OK, not quite adults, but compared to high school, there was a maturity level I could begin to feel comfortable with. Even when college age students were screwing around, it was often done in a clever more intelligent way. Making fart sounds with your arm pit was not longer the apex of humor. And bullying was considered crass and pointless.
 
I took the SAT test in my senior year and I didn't get the results. Even asking for them, I didn't get an answer. I guess they were lost in the shuffle. I might not have been suited for college but I was accepted by UCLA.
 
Grades 1-8 in a 4 room rural school taught by 4 teachers each teaching 2 grades.
Thought I was smartest kid.

When I got to high school I still thought I was really smart.

Well when I got to the University I learned I had been a "big fish in little pond" in grade and high school. Nearly flunked out,
 
Relief, Most of my friends & ones I associated with were friends from grade school. They kept changing resident lines of our grade schools. I attended 3 the last 3 years of grade school. Made very few friends in HS, none were lasting. Vietnam War was just getting started. Joined service within one week of graduation, went on to school after service.
 
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Really interesting thread, reading how people felt leaving school brings back a mix of nostalgia, relief, fear, and hope all tangled together. Some say it felt like freedom, others say it was bittersweet. If any of you ever need to test or practice language-assessments later in life, you might check out a versant test sample, a low-stakes way to get familiar with format and see what to expect.
 
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I recall after leaving 8th grade.... 'Now it's Summer with no more school for a few weeks...Yahoo! Beyond that it was no big deal!

What I did not know was that Summer, we moved from the small town I grew up in, to a large city. Now that was a bit more difficult to adjust too...but it all worked out well from me and our family.
 
How did you feel upon leaving school?
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I couldn't wait to start doing adulthood, skipped 12th grade and went to work in a sheet metal shop to earn a paycheck- the key to freedom!
But, I knew I was a prime candidate for the draft, so I joined the Army, enlisted for an extra year to guarantee my MOS training.
 
I was really happy to be finished with high school in 1962. I looked at my classmates as a bunch of squares. But when I got old I started to look back at my high school days with a fondness that I never had then.

I finished my graduate education when I joined a band. But there's not a week that goes by that I don't have heartache for those college years-- some of the best times of my life.

It's usually not possible to realize how wonderful things are when one is living them. It's like the eye: it cannot see itself.
 
After receiving my HS diploma, the Viet Nam War's unavoidable draft, was the main concern. I escaped being an easily sacrificed peon grunt carrying an M16 in some leech, mosquito, and poisonous snake infested Mekong Delta swamp by taking Navy and USAF tests, scoring high, then by personal choice enlisting into a guaranteed electronics career field, despite preferring to be entering a college program.
 
School, a modern brainwashing system. I read a lot and was mostly self educated. I did complete school, though I didn't learn anything academically after the fourth of fifth grade that I didn't already know. Just bad behavior from my peers;)
 
When I left school I was 18. School ended at grade 13, not 12 like it is now. Since I left home at 16, I could have quit school then but didn’t. I wanted my grade 13 diploma. Trouble is I skipped math class so didn’t get it. Later on when I was in my mid twenties I went back to adult school and got the credits I needed. Not only did I get the credits I got enough to get a scholarship
 
Relieved, too much going on friends in Nam, the busing of students, one group hating the other group, my friends
upset due to BF being drafted, my separation from my Mom. I couldn't concentrate on keeping the honor roll well and I really hated that.
Since I had married that last year, I now had this male wanting to have friends over all the time at home. Screwed up year that was. I too
just quit and got my GED later on. Then on to college after that.
 
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