/sci/ - Science & Math

All throughout highschool I had terrible grades and didn't care at all.

When I went off to community college, I flunked out in a semester and a half while not attending classes and drinking, partying and playing games all the time.

My problem when I was younger was always motivation. For most subjects, I had no reason to be interested. For example, there was a single class that I scored well in during high-school, web-mastering (html). I liked the idea of making webpages and so I did very well in the class, scoring the only perfect score on the final and ending with an A+. Although web-mastering isn't ultimately what I would end up doing, it was a testament to what I needed (the motivation to succeed).

About three or four years after dropping out of college I found something that inspired me. I was reading random stuff on the internet like I did most nights and stumbled on a blog where a guy was writing about oxidative stress in the electron-transport chain in the mitochondria. The whole idea was a causal basis for all age related pathologies, oxidative stress being one of them, and it completely blew my mind.

Two years later I would enroll in community college while working full time. I scored straight A's. Two years later I was able to leave my full time job and become a full time student. A year later, I have a 3.5 GPA and I'm about to transfer to a four year university as a biochemistry undergraduate.

Hope that inspires you, OP. We all have it in us, some of us just need to be inspired to have the will to do it.

Thank you for your response.

If you've read the blog posts, the problem is basically that I'm almost done with a 5-year college with nothing to show for it. Not good enough for doctoral studies, too old for re-starting undergraduate studies (24 while most students are 18-19) etc.

Your post was very inspiring - motivation is certainly a crucial factor.

>>4138553
>>you being 24

give up, seriously

you are too far behind in the race to be recognized. Try to get an employer to take you seriously and you will know what I mean. You are too old for any entry level job if you look into it after pursuing a new degree, 3 years from now.

You'll be 27-28 depending on how long you take. You will be darwinismed back to your mother's basement if you actually try to do anything.

>>4138771

theres some truth in this but not much.

funny though because its more or less true for me. ;_;

fuck it i dont care anymore

>>4138771
people change careers on average 3-4 times during their life time.
you're an autistic fuck, if you think everyone has to start at 18 and stick to one career for life.

>>4138788

Seriously give up, higher education is for a quickstart when you start out. You are better off getting your foot in the door now at a mediocre position and trying to climb the ranks with diligence. While you are climbing the ranks they might finance you to go back to school for higher education. Now is not the time.

You gettin old nignog, remember that. Time is a scarce commodity, you better get moving.

All throughout high school I was a B/C student. This was because I simply did not give a fuck about anything except video games. None of the work in HS was challenging or interesting for me. I did very well on tests but didn't do any homework or projects. This continued until my sophomore year of college, after failing 3 classes in a semester.

About this time I started taking my "real" classes (I'm a CS major). Suddenly I enjoyed the subject of the classes immensely. I'm now a senior, getting ready to graduate in May, and I've had 3.5-4.0 gpa every semester since my "revelation".

For me it just came from learning about things I'm interested in and that are challenging. Tell me to write a paper about the history of australian aborigines and I'll drool on my keyboard and browse 4chan for 8 hours. Tell me to write a bitTorrent client from scratch and I'll diligently familiarize myself with the protocol and write code for 8 hours straight.

>>4138804
>>4138804
>>change careers on average 3-4 times during their life time.
keywords being
>>during their life time

Employers want experience. You can change jobs from accountant to managerial, to engineer IF and IF you have history in those other jobs before you made the switch. But to be 28 and have no prior work experience is a oneway guaranteed path to failville.

ALL ABOARD TO FAILVILLE!

I got F's, D's, and the occasional C through most of public school. It all changed when I visited colleges between 11th and 12th grades. It gave me a solid image of higher education and I knew that's where I wanted to be. I got all A's senior year, and now I'm holding a 4.0 (PFOS) GPA as an honors student in a good college. It's all about knowing where you want to be, and that should give you the motivation to do what you need to do to get there.

i want to turn my life around so bad
i'm going to be a cs major. i get a's and b's and don't really care about school right now, but i want to become motivated and get a drive

Too old to start graduate studies? I was an intern for a power company (the company I now work for full-time). One of the other interns was 45 years old. He now works full time for the company too.

If you think you're "too old," what it really means is that you still give a shit what complete strangers think. If you still give a shit what complete strangers think, you don't want it enough.

But don't fret. I used to not want it enough either. I went for a psych degree and dropped out second semester with poor grads. Smoke pounds of weed, drank vodka more than water, had one shitty job after another, and then just finally snapped when I: (a) gave up the weed--weed takes away my anger; anger is motivation; (b) met an electrician who inspired me and made me felt like electricity was fun. 6 years later I graduate suma cum laude from a local school and I'm making pretty good money.

Don't quit, keep looking for inspiration, and ... uh, fuck the police!

>>4138871
Shit, I sure typo a lot when I'm watching movies and trying to respond at the same time.

>>4138833
there are housewives who become academics, labourers who become businessman, 3rd world refugees who become doctors. And, everything in between.

there are always mature age students in universities, in fact it's a trend that is more and more common nowadays than ever before. Especially during hard economic times as some people choose to start fresh after losing their jobs.

Someone must have raped the imagination out of you for you have such a simple minded view of the world, or you had asian parents.

>>4138553

>too old

shut up faggot you're not even 30. old fags go back to school for shit all the time. just lie about work experience if you have to.

ITT:
Old people in denial that the world isn't sympathetic to late bloomers. You wasted your life, now live it.

Thanks, guys, if anyone is still here.

Last self-bump.

It sounds like your problem is less your intelligence
> you're showing a desire for organization, planning, prediction, etc...

and more just simple motivation. Try keeping track of that and increasing yourself there.

>>4138771
>>4138812
>>4138988
are losers. do not listen to them. many people return to school throughout their 20's to retrain and enter a new field. your exact age, level of motivation, and talent will determine whether or not you can succeed in a particular field despite your unorthodox path. fields like physics, pure math, and medicine are more difficult to catch up in. computer science and engineering is still a lot of work but will require less education overall, so is more doable.

gl. and fuck all you downers in here. fuck you all.

>>4138988
Cool story bro

Tell us the story you tell yourself in the mirror. You know, the one about how you are a special little snowflake.