Individuality vs Traditionalism

[sanaero]

I've been lurking a while, but this topic found its way into my personal life fairly recently so I decided to seek some good advice. How do you guys deal with articulating your values to people who are more traditional without being disrespectful? I find that whenever I talk to someone outside of IB who isn't a generally more accepting person, its for me to explain my choices and views. For example, I am going to go to a college that is lower ranked than other ones I got into so that I can be with my best friend. When I try to explain to my more traditional parents or other adults or kids that relationships are more important to me than money, I usually just get into an argument that goes nowhere. How do you guys deal with this without just throwing books at them?

[WesPotts2k16]

By ignoring the noise. It's very difficult to put into words just what a racking toll IB takes on sleep or social life, as I'm more than sure you know by now, and most regular students, my parents, even college students really don't get how difficult IB is. For that measure I don't waste my breathe explaining...call me discriminative if you wish, but if they don't have the work ethic or mental capacity to handle IB's workload, then chances are they can only associate it to public high school honors, which is like a nap to us. They couldn't understand no matter how hard they have tried. In terms of college, all that matters in that regard is the campus at which you are most comfortable, so if it is with your friend then so be it. These are your formative years as an adult, so be true to yourself, instead of caving to external authority. In any regards, you may do better at this lower rank university. At the end of the day, the value in the education comes from the value of the professor, and you may get a better education in a community college than in a secondary university, because the strength of the professor builds up you, not the "prestige" or "tradition" of a traditional 4-year post-secondary university. You also have to factor what you intend to major in as well, not just the overall rank of the school, but how strong that specific department you plan to major in is. Good luck and I hope this helped ease you a little bit.

 

As one of my dear friends once explained to me: IB is a triangle in form. There are three sides to this triangle: sleep, social life, and work. It is imposiible to choose all three; we often find ourselves sacrificing one in the benefit of the other two.