I'm in 10th grade and I hate school. Any suggestions?
jseliger: "I'm introverted and spend most of my time reading or obsessively working on hobbies like programming"You might want to read the book The Introvert Advantage by Marti Laney, "Caring for Your Introvert" in The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200303/rauch) and Philip Zimbardo's The Time Paradox, which I wrote about here (http://jseliger.com/2008/09/01/the-time-paradox-—-philip-zim...).Notice this commenter's idea: "[...]the academic part of high school is not challenging enough for you, but what about the other parts? Are you on one of your school's sport team? Are you part of any clubs? Did you try to take on some kind of leadership position at your school? How big is your friend circle?"High school still offers many, many challenges, even if you don't realize it; for me, working on the school newspaper and joining the book club made a tremendous difference in how I perceived much of life."I was just wondering if you guys had any experiences or suggestions to share about school."School is a game. Make it your mission to learn how to crack the game, which doesn't mean you have to neglect your "real" education, as it sounds like that will happen chiefly on your own time. And what you consider "wastes of time" aren't always: they're opportunities to network, or to learn how to flirt, or to learn how to get away with things, and so on and so forth. These are important skills too, but many nerds ignore them for too long.A final book recommendation: try Curtis Sittenfeld's novel "Prep." It's not about someone in your situation, but it is about someone who, I think, finally learns how to "do" school. If you're as analytic as your post implies that you are, it's possible to learn this. Anyway, the personal website I linked to above has my e-mail address if you're interested in hearing more.