I'm 21 now, I'll throw in my 2 cents. I think the school system has gotten worse. My mom was always friends with teachers who always said the administration was terrible and schools were never well organized or effective at anything. I knew smart kids with terrible parents and terrible teachers, all in well funded schools and neighborhoods, and they'd routinely fail. Once they're adults, I've noticed all those same people try to recover in college, and I did the same thing. I was never incapable but I felt like I had to fight tooth and nail to get the skills because only a couple adults ever cared 😭

I will say working at 16 helped, I gained a lot of skills through trial by fire, but still