Originally Posted by Eagle Mum
It is a discouraging reality that education and the workforce are often highly competitive environments and uneven ‘playing fields’, where some will have advantages through contacts, socioeconomic advantage or simply being in the right place at the right time.

I encourage you, however, to continue to apply determined efforts, not necessarily to compete with others, but to gain knowledge, skills and experience, to discover and realise your own potential. Improving oneself is seldom if ever a waste of effort.

It has been my experience that it is very frustrating trying to control external factors, but highly rewarding to work and strive within my own personal capacity. This approach has brought the most success when opportunities arise.
Excellent advice from Eagle Mum, and well worth reading again at this point in the conversation!

Dear Anisotropic,
You are in good company: There are MANY who love to learn and do not like school. The learning environment may not be a good "fit." Rather than bemoaning that you did not fit any particular school (and internalize this as a personal shortcoming), you might want to consider whether a particular school did not fit you ... and happily move on, wiser for the experience, and seeking learning environments and opportunities that are a better match.

As you begin shopping for educational and career opportunities that are a good "fit", you may wish to take a look at the documentaries "Self-Taught" and "Class Dismissed."

The Davidson database has information for parents, which is also great for high school students. For example, information on creating one's own transcripts... especially for Do-It-Yourselfers such as homeschoolers, unschoolers, and those whose lives may be impacted by poor "fit" with available learning environments, school refusal, etc:
- https://www.davidsongifted.org/search-database/entry/a10874
- https://www.davidsongifted.org/search-database/entry/a10631
- https://www.davidsongifted.org/search-database/entry/r15884

If there is something one needs to learn (or demonstrate their knowledge of) in a particular topic, such as English, one could cull ideas from these materials to create a curriculum and/or reading list and/or project(s) to achieve their goals.

There are other free resources as well... guidebooks on Advocacy, Gap Year, 2e, and more.
- https://www.davidsongifted.org/young-scholars/free-guidebooks

It is possible that seeing yourself as a Do-It-Yourselfer, a motivated, out-of-the-box thinker, even a person with some auto-didactic tendencies... may help you keep moving forward in a positive manner.