Grade your life so far
Discussion
I went to a primary school that was run by a very militant older head mistress, she was in here 80s when I joined! They had a lovely end of year tradition of lining up every class in front of the entire school in order or top of the class to bottom. I was always bottom and where I suppose for some it would be soul destroying, I got the point I simply didn't care. I'm sure my primary school teachers would have written me off.
Secondary school I was pretty average though, GCSEs were all Cs with one B! haha
I now work as an IT Manager, good money, decent house, cars, three kids etc. I'd say my life and career is better than my school results would have implied. That said, I had no option to do IT throughout school so something I enjoyed as a hobby in my teens.
Secondary school I was pretty average though, GCSEs were all Cs with one B! haha
I now work as an IT Manager, good money, decent house, cars, three kids etc. I'd say my life and career is better than my school results would have implied. That said, I had no option to do IT throughout school so something I enjoyed as a hobby in my teens.
Gary C said:
A+
Grade C O Levels in Maths, Physics & Chemistry (only due to the 16+ rules at the time), the rest at CSE
Now Hons Degree in engineering, 6 figure salary and a licenced nuclear operator (as the yanks would term it)
And... An old nationalised industry final salary pension to come soon
No real idea what the teachers though of me, I never listened to them much and reports ? never read them.
So, not too bad.
Grade C O Levels in Maths, Physics & Chemistry (only due to the 16+ rules at the time), the rest at CSE
Now Hons Degree in engineering, 6 figure salary and a licenced nuclear operator (as the yanks would term it)
And... An old nationalised industry final salary pension to come soon
No real idea what the teachers though of me, I never listened to them much and reports ? never read them.
So, not too bad.
A in education then career, making money, material possessions.
A in life experiences, travel etc. I've done everything I wanted.
B in family and friendships, decent husband, father, reasonable friend group. Could do better and be more engaged and present.
C in health, I'm a bit of a chunk and need to look after myself better.
I'm 45. I think I will concentrate more on the B's and C's for the next 10 years and less on work.
Overall I'm happy. I never get down on birthdays as I think I've made a pretty good job of it so far with minimal regrets.
My school grades weren't the greatest, but then I had very little interest in school. Reports always said things like "shows signs of real intelligence, but unless those signs are converted into actual work, little will be achieved." I always tried as hard as my limited attention span would allow, but really it only allowed for dreams of cars, bikes, aeroplanes and other things and I had very little time for foreign languages, English mathematics or history. I spent every free minute in the CDT workshop welding, brazing, doing lathe work and casting aluminium, or the electronics lab figuring out projects and making PCBs, soldering and that kind of thing. Classic undiagnosed autism spectrum and ADHD.
I got a B, C and N grades in my A-levels and I did go to university for a year, but dropped out after a year as it really wasn't for me. I was desperate to become a pilot as my profession, but a half-brother was killed in a flying accident before I was born, so that line of work was absolutely out of the question. And at the time I was growing up, there were something like 500 applicants for every sponsorship, which was the only way I was going to be able to afford it without parental assistance or without joining the RAF.
From a purely career-based perspective I've probably done OK despite not getting to do what I had my heart set on. I've worked in IT all of my career, starting as the first employee of a computer hardware sales company and rising with it. Then changing tack and moving into the software side of things required me to start from the bottom again at the age of 30. Now, approaching 50 I'm earning 6 figures, and get paid to travel and work on amazing projects. Most people would be very happy with that outcome, but there's much more to life than how much you earn.
In my personal life, I don't have as many friends as I would like and very few of them are male. I always found making male friends quite difficult, but women much easier for some reason. I'm not into sports except golf, and I'm not a drinker. Pub life is not for me. One lady is probably my "best friend", and yet we disagree so vehemently on politics that I really struggle with her views - she's VERY right-wing and I'm pretty centrist.
But the thing that bothers me the most is that I never managed to have a traditional family. My mother was from a middle-eastern country, and in that culture families stick together and children don't move out of the family home until they marry. My mother was quite unwell for the last 10 years of her life and I more or less devoted my non-working life into looking after her. So my late 30s and 40s, dating was non-existent. And I wasn't terribly good at it before then. So no spouse, no children and no companionship for me. Mum died a couple of years ago so much less restricted in that regard. But now I work from home when not travelling for work, so there's very little opportunity to meet people. And I'd like to have a pet - there were always dogs in the house in my youth. But I'm travelling enough that having either a dog or a cat would not really be feasible.
The only achievement I'm proud of is managing to turn my school time disinterest in languages around, and in adulthood reached a fairly decent level in German and French and am currently learning Spanish and can speak a little Danish, which carries over to Norwegian quite well, Swedish less so...
School life 4/10
Career 7.5/10
Private/Social life 2/10
"Must try harder"
I got a B, C and N grades in my A-levels and I did go to university for a year, but dropped out after a year as it really wasn't for me. I was desperate to become a pilot as my profession, but a half-brother was killed in a flying accident before I was born, so that line of work was absolutely out of the question. And at the time I was growing up, there were something like 500 applicants for every sponsorship, which was the only way I was going to be able to afford it without parental assistance or without joining the RAF.
From a purely career-based perspective I've probably done OK despite not getting to do what I had my heart set on. I've worked in IT all of my career, starting as the first employee of a computer hardware sales company and rising with it. Then changing tack and moving into the software side of things required me to start from the bottom again at the age of 30. Now, approaching 50 I'm earning 6 figures, and get paid to travel and work on amazing projects. Most people would be very happy with that outcome, but there's much more to life than how much you earn.
In my personal life, I don't have as many friends as I would like and very few of them are male. I always found making male friends quite difficult, but women much easier for some reason. I'm not into sports except golf, and I'm not a drinker. Pub life is not for me. One lady is probably my "best friend", and yet we disagree so vehemently on politics that I really struggle with her views - she's VERY right-wing and I'm pretty centrist.
But the thing that bothers me the most is that I never managed to have a traditional family. My mother was from a middle-eastern country, and in that culture families stick together and children don't move out of the family home until they marry. My mother was quite unwell for the last 10 years of her life and I more or less devoted my non-working life into looking after her. So my late 30s and 40s, dating was non-existent. And I wasn't terribly good at it before then. So no spouse, no children and no companionship for me. Mum died a couple of years ago so much less restricted in that regard. But now I work from home when not travelling for work, so there's very little opportunity to meet people. And I'd like to have a pet - there were always dogs in the house in my youth. But I'm travelling enough that having either a dog or a cat would not really be feasible.
The only achievement I'm proud of is managing to turn my school time disinterest in languages around, and in adulthood reached a fairly decent level in German and French and am currently learning Spanish and can speak a little Danish, which carries over to Norwegian quite well, Swedish less so...
School life 4/10
Career 7.5/10
Private/Social life 2/10
"Must try harder"
Edited by LunarOne on Wednesday 3rd July 12:24
Was very good at school up until GCSEs, virtually all top grades.
All went wrong at A-level and got average to low grades.
University was slightly better but kindof lost all motivation at that age and have never really got it back.
Never been bothered about a career but I do ok. It's just money to me and I don't think about it when I'm not there.
Outside of work I'm very happy, dropped a day last year so now work 30 hours a week. I enjoy my quiet life.
Probably need to do a bit more with my life but I'd give it a solid C.
All went wrong at A-level and got average to low grades.
University was slightly better but kindof lost all motivation at that age and have never really got it back.
Never been bothered about a career but I do ok. It's just money to me and I don't think about it when I'm not there.
Outside of work I'm very happy, dropped a day last year so now work 30 hours a week. I enjoy my quiet life.
Probably need to do a bit more with my life but I'd give it a solid C.
Panamax said:
LimaDelta said:
Would your teachers be surprised at where you are now, in either a positive or negative sense?
Some thought I was a waster and a fool; others that I had potential and could succeed.It appears both were correct! Who wants to be "average" anyway?
PlywoodPascal said:
I was in bottom set for science and English at school and now I’m a prof at one of the world’s top universities. When one of my former teachers found out I was doing a PhD they said they saw no evidence that I was capable of that.
It’s left me in the unfortunate position that I massively distrust formal education but part of my job is to deliver it.
I'm in my 50s now. Had contempt for most of my teachers but there were one or two possible stand out ones in a good way BUT one physics one at Samuel Whitbread Upper School in the mid 80s in a shockingly bad way.It’s left me in the unfortunate position that I massively distrust formal education but part of my job is to deliver it.
I'd been at 2 secondary schools in very different parts of the country. Probably wasted the opportunities given to me.
4 A's, 8 O's and a smattering of CSE's
Coerced by family, uncles, aunts and cousins to attend University. Did so at the worst time around 91 and came out unemployed. Still think that I would have progressed much further/higher if I'd remained in employment - I gave up a really good and interesting job for Uni.
Now in my early 50's I decided commuting/bulls
t work for the money/dhead bosses wasn't worth it and backpedalled and am cruising along rejecting difficult contracts paying a lot of money and only undertaking easier projects/contracts paying less. They are very unhappy I've effectively become a semi-pro bum. So in a nutshell I'm consistently disappointing them.
Coerced by family, uncles, aunts and cousins to attend University. Did so at the worst time around 91 and came out unemployed. Still think that I would have progressed much further/higher if I'd remained in employment - I gave up a really good and interesting job for Uni.
Now in my early 50's I decided commuting/bulls
t work for the money/dhead bosses wasn't worth it and backpedalled and am cruising along rejecting difficult contracts paying a lot of money and only undertaking easier projects/contracts paying less. They are very unhappy I've effectively become a semi-pro bum. So in a nutshell I'm consistently disappointing them. Considering my behaviour, attitude and achievements at school, I'd say I'm doing rather well.
Considering the opportunities I have been afforded throughout my life, I'd say I'm doing very badly.
ETA Though I'm only looking at this from a career & income perspective. I'm definitely an A+ for family etc. (Could be mostly luck
)
So overall - B?
Considering the opportunities I have been afforded throughout my life, I'd say I'm doing very badly.
ETA Though I'm only looking at this from a career & income perspective. I'm definitely an A+ for family etc. (Could be mostly luck
)So overall - B?
Edited by beagrizzly on Wednesday 3rd July 14:57
glenrobbo said:
Gary C said:
A+
Grade C O Levels in Maths, Physics & Chemistry (only due to the 16+ rules at the time), the rest at CSE
Now Hons Degree in engineering, 6 figure salary and a licenced nuclear operator (as the yanks would term it)
And... An old nationalised industry final salary pension to come soon
No real idea what the teachers though of me, I never listened to them much and reports ? never read them.
So, not too bad.
Grade C O Levels in Maths, Physics & Chemistry (only due to the 16+ rules at the time), the rest at CSE
Now Hons Degree in engineering, 6 figure salary and a licenced nuclear operator (as the yanks would term it)
And... An old nationalised industry final salary pension to come soon
No real idea what the teachers though of me, I never listened to them much and reports ? never read them.
So, not too bad.
It depends from what perspective you're looking at it from. If you're the wrong end of the scale, then yeah I'd probably be viewed as doing pretty well. But from further up the ladder then I'm mediocre.
I've got that classic British trait of being so self-deprecating, that I actually fail to afford myself any feelings of pride in my achievements.
I'd probably give myself a 6.5/10 if I had to put a number on it. Definitely some potential I have failed to fulfil, and time wasted that I'll never catch up on.
I've got that classic British trait of being so self-deprecating, that I actually fail to afford myself any feelings of pride in my achievements.
I'd probably give myself a 6.5/10 if I had to put a number on it. Definitely some potential I have failed to fulfil, and time wasted that I'll never catch up on.
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff