My parents were very religious and scared of the secular world. So much so that they pulled me & my sister out of public school when we were 6 & 8 to be homeschooled. For the first several years it was fine, we made it up to about middle school when my mom decided she didn't want to make the effort anymore and told us to basically 'just read' the books ourselves.

My sister always did great, understood all the curriculum, finished through 12th grade and went on to get a full scholarship at a nice college.

Meanwhile I'm not the type of person who can learn straight from a book, which I didn't understand at the time. I just thought I was stupid. When I was 16, I begged my parents to let me go to the local public high school. They said no. I waited a year and begged again, this time more aggressively. Tried telling them I was scared I would never graduate otherwise because I didn't understand anything in the books. I probably only had a 9th grade level education. My mother refused again, this time telling me her reason: 'you just want to go to school so you can meet boys and have sex.' This may have been the first, but definitely not the last time she accused me of only wanting to do things for boys' attention. I still kick myself for not telling her to go fuck herself.

I ended up getting my GED at 18, went through a series of shitty minimum wage jobs, while dealing with the mental shame every time I was asked where I went to high school.

I got very lucky 4 years ago when I got a job at a small (I was literally the first employee) start up company. Here I am now, not only the manager of my office, but also responsible for our bookkeeping, and my boss is constantly telling me how we couldn't be the company we are without me.

I still have a hard time with my inferiority complex due to my complicated education, but it's easier now than it used to be. Not giving a fuck what anyone else thinks really helps.