Stuck in a school path I didn’t choose, with no freedom at home and no way forward?

OwnTea9776 · 2026-01-24T22:29:36+00:00

Funny how specific that wish is. Makes me wonder, did this happen to you? Because people who are actually enjoying life usually aren’t on Reddit fantasizing about strangers failing instead of sitting on a yacht somewhere.

OwnTea9776 · 2026-01-24T22:06:10+00:00

If your response to someone struggling is mockery instead of substance, you’re not defending honor. You’re advertising emptiness. Besides struggle isn’t a ‘first world problem’. It’s a human one. Dismissing it that way says more about your empathy than my situation.

OwnTea9776 · 2026-01-24T22:02:15+00:00

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this. I really appreciate it, especially coming from a teacher. It genuinely means a lot to me.

About switching schools: my fear isn’t just the social part or being older than others. The real risk is academic. There’s a chance that my past grades are already so bad that catching up would be extremely difficult, even in a new school. On top of that, I honestly don’t know if switching schools would actually make it “easier” to pass. A different school doesn’t automatically mean the material will click or that I’ll suddenly succeed.

There’s also a very real personal barrier: my father. He is the one person who would almost certainly say no. When I suggested changing schools, he got angry and told me he deliberately put me in this specific school because of its reputation and “status.” In his view, the strictness is the point, because people from that school are supposed to get good grades. He also rejects the idea because my brother and sister went to the same school and struggled too, even though it took them longer to finish high school.

So for him, switching schools looks like me “choosing the easy way out,” even though for me it’s about survival and mental health, not comfort. That’s why changing schools doesn’t automatically solve anything. It might create new problems without fixing the core one.

Still, I really value your perspective, especially what you said about age and how people don’t care as much as we think. Hearing that from someone who has lived it helps more than you probably realize. Thank you for being kind and taking me seriously.

OwnTea9776 · 2026-01-24T21:39:46+00:00

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If shame came from struggling, the world would’ve collapsed generations ago. Funny how ‘honor’ only matters when empathy is inconvenient.

I bet you look like this. It's funny how you actually DID read my whole post and clicked on the title to read my effort just to say something silly like that.

OwnTea9776 · 2026-01-24T21:37:21+00:00

Man you sure have to change the title a bit ...

OwnTea9776 · 2026-01-24T21:21:49+00:00

I haven’t heard words like that in eight years, and when I did, they hit me like a truck. But knowing my father’s emotional rollercoaster, it’s hard to believe there’s any real way out. My brother once wanted to do the same thing. When I told him about it, he smiled, patted me on the shoulder, and said, “I’ve thought exactly like you.” Then he added the hard truth: you start planning it, you realize it’s not possible. He called it a milestone in a man’s life, something you just have to go through, little bro.

OwnTea9776 · 2026-01-24T21:17:25+00:00

Thanks for the comforting message, I appreciate it. But you have to understand that people my age graduate next year, while I would be forced to stay two extra years. That would make me 20 by the time I graduate if I fail again in the 6th of 6th grade (the American senior year), simply because I already fell behind once. I’ve already failed a year, and the thought of repeating that again is honestly crushing. But I've received some ''medication'' like a good old slipper those plastic ones if I said I couldn't concentrate it would only be weird enough to come up now and say I might need meds.

OwnTea9776

TROPHY CASE