In other words, my university classes have been pretty easy, so far. Is the workload a bit heavy and redundant at times? Sure. But, have I felt the need to pull an all-nighter to write a paper or study for an exam, so far? No. Nor do I plan to do that, because my physical and mental health are far more important to me than academics. 

In fact, the main reason why I’m able to succeed in college at all, is because I take very good care of my mental and physical health. Throughout K-12, and especially at DSST, my physical and mental health were terrible. Even dire at times, as I was giving it my all to simply survive, I had almost no energy- let alone desire- to spend on schoolwork. Sending me to detention (AKA “college prep”) five days per week did nothing to change my mind. It actually proved to me that I was stupid, incapable, and destined to fail no matter how hard I tried. Oh, and my chronic exhaustion and anxiety made my physical health that much worse, too, eventually culminating into a severe MRSA infection that landed me in the hospital for two-and-a-half weeks. 

Unsurprisingly, when I left DSST for Girls Athletic Leadership School, I was able to recover physically and mentally, at least a little bit. I still despised school and dreaded going there every day. But, at least at GALS, I was hardly ever bullied, and my mental and physical health were slightly prioritized over my academics. Interestingly, as my physical and mental health improved, so did my grades, even though I did absolutely nothing else differently at GALS than I did at DSST. 

Actually, that’s not entirely true. I did far less school work at GALS than I did at DSST. 

In fact, years later, when I was in Homebound with Eric as my teacher, my grades absolutely skyrocketed even though I did less than three hours of school and/or school work per day! Perhaps, that happened because Homebound sheltered me from most of the unnecessary stresses of school, while allowing me to fully prioritize my physical health above everything else.