I still remember standing with my 10th grade English teacher and talking about 11th grade. I was a slacker, but I got good grades. There would be no more honors classes the next year -- it was either reg classes or International Baccalaureate classes. I wanted reg.

My teacher urged me to take IB classes. She said my writing was too good to choose otherwise. So I listened to her. And I was one of only two people in the program to earn my IB diploma. The biggest accomplishment of my life. I got into Smith College almost tuition-free . . .

But the last two years of high school ostracism (I& #39;d been popular before my "best friend" turned everyone against me) had broken my mind. I would sit alone all night in my dorm room, downloading from LimeWire, eating the free food and cutting myself.

In March of my freshman year, I had a mental breakdown. I left school. I made a certain girl my life -- and though I feel nothing for her now, it killed me when she left me. Two suicide attempts. Unsuccessful jobs. That was then . . .

And nothing has really changed in a decade. Only now I drink more.

There was really no point to this thread.