I passed but my report card sucked

Just got my report card in the mail and…. Good news — I passed all my courses. Bad news – some of them were pretty close to the line. Like really close.

Seems no matter how hard I try or how supposedly “smart” I am, I don’t do well sitting in a class for a year trying to tick off all the expected boxes to get good marks.

It’s super hard to pay attention even with medication, good food, rest and all the things I do to help my ADHD.

I can hear my moms voice in my head “these are going to be on your permanent transcripts so you better get goods marks.” So this report card today comes as a pretty big disappointment … again.

“I go back and forth between caring about marks and just wanting to get it done and pass the class so I can be free from formal education.”

Last summer I started taking courses online with the help of a tutor.  I found this a great  way to quickly learn the material in a shorter period of time so I wouldn’t get bored and I was able to write the exams at the local university. On all of those courses I earned very high marks, mostly A’s & B’s  in grade 10 socials, math, science, tech and  planning.
Doing these online courses put me a full year ahead — so now I have the option of graduating early.   I’m torn. I want to be with my friends for the next two years and graduate with them but it is  really really hard to be in class.

Here are my biggest downfalls when it comes to getting good marks in school:

1 – Not handing things in.

2 – Not knowing exactly what to do and missing the assignments altogether.

3 – My writing is terrible. (I have dysgraphia). At times, teachers judge my work based on the writing. Also, if I don’t have a scribe or computer I get too tired to  write and do just the minimum.

4 – I go off on a rant.  Some subjects like in  history when I learned that they burned old women because they thought they were witches made me so mad I made make sure the entire class knew about it. Hey, just sayin’.

5 – I don’t do homework. Fortunately, (thanks mom & dad)  I have a tutor and when she sits me down twice a week I get as much homework and studying done as  possible. Other than that I haven’t found a way to just do it on my own.  My brain says, NO! time to do something less boring!

I’m happy that I finally have a break from school.  I do wish my report card looked more like my brother’s — but don’t tell them that!

Hope you are having a great summer!

~ Jeff