[efoote868]

What you've posted saddens me. I don't think any high schooler should be put through that, and at the time this was all happening it probably felt like an impossible situation.

In the world outside of school, what you've described is similar to dealing with a bad boss. I've experienced that helplessness; no one around (or very few people) knows exactly how you're feeling and what you're dealing with, and it sucks.

If you want to know, there's a silver lining - you got to have that experience on the cheap. What I mean by that is you haven't had a job that's become unbearable, and face that stress of having to go in every day to hours you don't want to spend doing things you didn't sign up to do, with terrible people you're forced to have interactions, and if you quit you'll lose your income (and possibly more) and have to find a new job (and if you have to move that means paying money to break your lease and all sorts of other costs).

Here's a lesson that I learned through that - I can be entirely in control of my situation, and I get to decide how I want to react. Every day I go into work, it's because I chose to do so. I chose if I want to find a new job or not. I decide when it's time to quit, and I get to decide if things and events will bother me or not. A point I made to a co-worker one evening after our 15th consecutive 12 hour workday - when we were discussing what we were going to do (and he was saying how much he wanted to quit) - I'm a duck, gliding across a pond, and what you don't get to see is my feet furiously paddling below the surface.

I sincerely hope you do well with whatever you decide to do, but please keep us posted with what happens. It's unfortunate what you've had to go through, but your experiences can definitely benefit others.

Best of luck,

-Evan Foote