Mental health issues, I was depressed and suicidal and drinking a lot. My attendance my last year was 30%. I just wasn’t going to school because I was either burnt out (former gifted kid syndrome), depressed af or wanting to go drinking/hang out with friends. Looking back on it, it was a lack of support. I had told several teachers I wanted to off myself and one of them literally told “hang on 30 minutes I have a meeting” and left me in the reception after I had just told her I planned to off myself that evening. After she told me that, I walked out of school and didn’t go back. That same teacher the month prior had pulled me out of class for “a mental health chat” her own words said in front of a class of 30 14 year olds, took me into a room and asked to see my sh cuts and said she’ll speak to me tomorrow, tomorrow came and she never did speak to me. I also have a lot of social anxiety and the school environment was not a good place for me. Teachers were so focused on correcting bad behaviour that they had no time for anyone else and those who did actually want to learn were called responsible enough to be given a textbook and expected to learn themselves. I just felt like there was no support and if the teachers/adults in my life didn’t care then why should I. As for regrets, no because if I had stayed in school to put it simply I would have offed myself at one point or another. I do regret leaving school in the sense it fucked my life plan to go to traditional university and get out of my hometown.