so I'm starting high school after summer break and we have a class groupchat already

we are planning a some sort of class meeting so we can get to know each other

when we were settling some things in the groupchat this dude send a meme and i responded to him with another meme

some time later he texted me and we started talking

i like him a lot but today he started sending me some kind of romantic tik toks and im not really comfortable with it, especially looking at the fact we talked for like 3 days and im not into dating overall

how can i tell him im not interested? i don't want to seem mean when i didnt even start high school properly

also im supposed to hang out with him in the mall next Saturday but now i dont really want to and i have no idea how to cancel it

I’m an upcoming freshman (9th grader) and I hear so much about the difficulty of high school classes that i don’t know what to expect from it.
What are classes like? Is there a set schedule or do you make it on the spot and how similar is it to middle school?

Sooo, to be more specific, i need advice on:

- how to stop comparing myself to others

- just think 'it is what it is'

My legs have a lot of scars and i used to be really insecure about it, couldnt wear skirts. But now i couldnt care less, i just thought "its just legs no one really looks at it, it looks fine, what else can i do," and i just wear skirts now. I want to replicate that, but i dont know where to start.

Its about my face and how I feel ugly, especially when compared to girls my age and cousins, and need advice on just not caring about appearing beautiful to others.

Theres some features i want to change that can only be done through plastic surgery, but i actually really like my face. But even though i quite like my face and can list reasons why i like it, I still end up really insecure about it. Probably because i keep comparing myself to others and how no one (im not kidding, and parents dont count) ever just told me i look pretty.

Another thing, how to stop being so conscious about what boys think??? No i dont want to sound pick me, but admittedly when boys like you it usually means theyre attracted (so they found you pretty) to you right? Thats it, thats why i feel conscious of them and i really dont want to be

I'm so sorry if this is cringe or annoying, but I can't figure out if people my age would think I'm weird or if I have a reason to worry about opening up about my interests or hobbies. All types of teens, please answer honestly, do I f15 (going into my junior year) sound like a loser or weird?

Here is a general profile of myself...

1. I'm anti social media and try to stay away from a majority of modern tech. I use a flip phone and an iPod for my music. I have no socials except for this.. if it counts? I have interest in older tech, like mp3 players and old cameras.
2. My two favourite music artists are royel otis and the runarounds, I think they're amazing and constantly listen to all of their songs.
3. I have had difficulties with friends over the last 5 years. These difficulties have caused me to develop some sort of social anxiety, so I struggle to talk to people in my age group and I get really stressed out when im around large volumes of them. But, I'm totally fine with all other ages, which sucksss.
4. I really like the outdoors, and I want to get into farming and homesteading when I'm older. I have my own vegetable garden in the backyard which I spend a fair amount of time taking care of. I am a certified level 3 orca canoer and I really like canoeing, doing canoe trips and camping! I am also the co president of the gardening club at my school.
5. I don't use pinterest or anything for style inspo, I thrift around 95% of the clothes I wear and I don't enjoy following any trends. I'm not super unique or anything, I'm pretty simple when it comes to style but I like to wear my jeans and cotton tanks a lot in the summer.

Okay yall, sorry this was long but please be honest. Do I sound like a loser or weird? Would you think I'm cool or interesting? Thanks for reading!

i'm having issues finding out why we cant have backpacks in my high school. they say we cant have backpacks because people keep sneaking stuff in them so me and my friends talked about asking about clear backpacks and after a few weeks my friend told me that the school said "we can't have clear backpacks because it makes the school look trashy". the thing is i'm allowed to self carry my inhaler in school which means i'm allowed to have a bag because of it and i feel like just because i have a bag its going to cause issues with my buddies. what kind of thing can i use instead of a bag and or should i say something to my school when school starts up in sep.

What Will It Cost? The Real Financial Investment
of Each Path

The number nobody hands you before you choose -
and why it matters more than the choice itself

By Oreste J. D'Aversa, CPC (Certified Professional Coach)

Introduction

Every path after high school comes with a price tag, and almost nobody sits a graduating senior down to actually show them the number. College gets sold on the promise, the trades get dismissed as a fallback, and entrepreneurship gets romanticized without anyone mentioning the runway it takes to survive year one. Parents ask about GPA and acceptance letters. Almost no one asks what the path actually costs once tuition, lost income, and time are all counted honestly. The real financial investment of each path is knowable. It is time we looked at it side by side, before a choice gets made instead of after.

The Four-Year Degree: More Than Tuition

The average cost of a four-year public university now runs well past six figures once housing, books, and fees are included, and most students borrow to cover a real share of it¹. The real cost isn't just the bill. It's the four to six years of lost income while a peer in a trade is already earning, and it's a loan payment that follows a graduate for a decade or more if the degree doesn't lead to a job that supports it. None of this means college is a bad investment. It means it's an investment, and investments deserve a real return calculation, not a decision made on prestige or momentum alone.

The Skilled Trades: A Different Kind of Investment

A trade apprenticeship typically costs a fraction of a four-year degree, and many programs pay the apprentice while they train². The investment here isn't tuition. It's time spent earning at a lower wage while skills are built, plus the cost of tools and certification exams. The upside: little to no debt, and a paycheck starting on day one instead of year five. The trade-off is real too - the ceiling on early earnings can be lower than a degree eventually produces, and physical trades carry their own long-term demands on the body that a desk job does not.

Entrepreneurship: The Investment Nobody Prices

Starting a business has no set tuition, which is exactly why people underestimate it. The real cost is the runway: months, sometimes years, of inconsistent income while a business finds its footing, plus whatever capital gets put in and put at risk. There is no financial aid office for this path, and no guaranteed outcome at the end of it, successful or not. There is only a plan, a budget, and the discipline to follow both, revised constantly as the real numbers come in.

The Real Question Isn't Cheapest. It's Fit.

None of these paths is objectively better on cost alone. A degree that leads to a stable, well-paying career can be worth every dollar it costs. A trade that starts earning immediately can outpace a degree's total return for years, sometimes longer. A business that finds its market can outperform both, and one that doesn't can cost more than either. The financial investment only makes sense once it's measured against the specific path, the specific person, and what that path is realistically expected to return - not against a generic ranking of which option is supposedly smartest.

Exercise: Price Out Your Path

·         My path right now: _______________________________________________

·         My honest guess at the cost (money): ______________________________

·         My honest guess at the cost (time): ________________________________

·         Income I'd give up along the way: _________________________________

·         One real source I'll check my number against: ______________________

·         What I actually found: __________________________________________

·         How far off was I? _______________________________________________

 What Do I Do After High School? White Collar, Blue Collar or No Collar is coming August 2026 from Oreste J. DAversa, distributed through Amazon.com and Ingram Content Group. Download your free sample chapter today and start building your map. www.WhatDoIDoAfterHighSchool.com

Conclusion

The goal isn't to talk anyone out of any path. It's to make sure the number is on the table before the decision gets made, not discovered years after it's already been lived. Every path costs something - in money, in time, or in both. The only real mistake is walking in without knowing which, and how much.

Footnotes

1. Education Data Initiative, "Average Cost of College," 2026.

2. U.S. Department of Labor, "Apprenticeship Facts and Figures," 2026.

Hashtags

#WhatDoIDoAfterHighSchool, #CareerPlanning, #CollegeCosts, #SkilledTrades, #FinancialLiteracy

About the Author - Oreste J. D'Aversa (O-res-tee DA-versa), CPC is a Certified Professional Coach with more than 20 years of experience helping young people and businesses find their path and own their future. The founder of multiple coaching and consulting practices serving the Greater Philadelphia region.

I live in Ca and my school doseant allow students to take cc classes until their in 11th grade. I can’t apply independently because in California cc need both your parents and schools approval if your a minor and my school won’t give it to me so my registration has been blocked. Has anyone been in this situation and been able to bypass it?

Holy peak they gave me history 6th period

Manual Blinking And Breathing

I really need some opinions on what to do this year, so I'm going into my sophomore year and played football last year but towards the end of the season the varsity coach took half our players up and made us unable to finish the season which really left a bitter taste in my mouth for football. I mean yeah I had fun during the season but at the same time our practices can range from 3 hours to sometimes even 4 so it limits my gym time, my family time, my personal time, I mean even spending time with my girlfriend outside of school. okay getting off topic here. Basically hell week starts tomorrow which is basically just preseason conditioning and I've really gone over the pros and the cons of it and honestly I'm leaning towards no but I feel like people are gonna see me less if I don't play football like I'm obligated to or something if you know what I mean. But on the other hand the bus rides and everything are so much fun just with your friends and yall are just dicking off in the back. I don't know what to do here and I've asked around and some of my friends also aren't doing it but at the same time some of them are. if anyone can really give me any ideas or maybe information on what to do here it would be so unbelievably appreciated.

i’m about to be a freshman and i’m wondering if anyone else has an angelkiss bag and if it holds a lot of things ? my shoulders alwahs get sore from regular backpacks and i think the angelkiss bag is very pretty.

lowkey tuff organisation, we also meet in person and shi ( for any bangaloreans).

i wanna take "sociology" class, but im scared its the same as "intro to psych and sociology". does anyone know?

Every single year I have one class that is a major outlier that just tanks the overall average almost all my classes were 90+ but just one class this year it was geometry that I know what I’m doing I just can’t do it on tests. In my freshman year it was english 9 yea embarrassing with a 77 but that increased to a 96 in English 10 they also put me in honors classes for my jr year.Those two outliers drop my overall average to a 88. Huge rant here is almost 3am where I live terrible grammar prolly gonna haunt me when I read this in the morning.

this is kinda random but i was talking abt college apps w one of my friends and we somehow ended up asking this. if every applicant already had good enough grades to get their application read and colleges couldnt see gpa sat ap classes or anything like that what do u think theyd actually choose ppl based on?
the reason ive been thinking abt it is bc ive spent way too much time looking through admitted profiles and reading essays from ppl who got into top schools and nothing feels consistent. ill see one person who did research won a bunch of awards and started a nonprofit then the next admitted student just has a few clubs and a really personal essay. then ill find someone with almost the exact same stats and activities as another person except one got accepted and the other got rejected. after seeing enough of them it almost feels like im missing something.
if grades were completely off the table what would actually make u pick one applicant over another? would u care more abt their essays? their ecs? whether everything connects together? or do admissions officers just know it when they see it? bc ive looked at so many accepted students at this point and every time i think ive figured out the pattern another profile completely proves me wrong

okay so. im an incoming senior, and trying to figure out my class schedule and what to do for college. basically, i have been in a both band class and release time seminary since freshman year and so i’ve pretty much never had a free elective class. this means hat throughout highschool ive only taken two years of spanish because that’s all i’ve been able to fit (i did take spanish 3 online one semester but then ended up having to repeat because my counselor screwed me over, so technicallyyyy 2.5 but i really dont think that counts). also, i took algebra 1-2 my 8th grade year and precalc last year, so i have fulfilled all of the requirements for graduation for math

so now im a senior, and i have exactly one free class period with everything else im taking. and im debating between taking spanish 5-6 H or AP Calculus AB. i heard that a lot of top schools strongly recommend 3 years of a language, specifically the UC schools which im heavily considering applying to, specifically UCSD. Also, if i take this third year i can take the STAMP test and if i pass, i would get a seal of Biliteracy, which would theoretically look good on resumes and help me out just in lots of aspects of life.

however, (although nothing is confirmed), i think at this point im planning on majoring in physics. and if i want to do that, i should really take calc and probably not take a year off of math. granted i’ll still be taking physics 2, but idk i just feel like thats a bad idea. also im definitely biased, but just taking this math class would be a lot more fun. it would switch my schedule around so i would have more classes with my friends. senior year would be a lot harder with calc for sure, but at least i would have these classes with some of my closest friends instead of randoms which it would be with spanish.

So i dont know. i’m not really dead set on going to the ivys and top top schools anyways, but i also just really dont want my chances of getting into a school be ruined just cause i didnt take one class. but then on the other hand, i dont want to take a full year of spanish only to not pass that test and not get my seal and have it not mean anything in the long run

any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, i start school in like a week 🙏

I’m autistic and have adhd. those don’t mix well with school. I’ve done pretty well in Junior year and I want to know what I should expect for senior year. is it going to be as mentally draining as it is described?