Why do parents expect you to jump into college immediately and then not understand when you're struggling?
Exactly what the title says. When I entered senior year of high school, I discussed with my mom that I would like to hold off on college for about a year, so that I could prepare mentally, learn all I needed to know about it, and just enjoy the simple freedom of NOT being a student for a while. Of course, my opinion was ignored and I entered college once summer break ended. First semester was easy, but the second semester has fucked me up. It didn't help that my first semester was mostly online classes. There were so many unspoken rules that no one had told me about.
I wanted to work on MYSELF before I entered college. I am notoriously bad at communicating. I am not able to communicate my needs effectively and that has cost me a lot before and I KNOW it's bad, so I try to fix it. I knew that college would require me to get better at communicating and being less shy so that I could succeed, and I've tried, but I still hesitate to ask for help a lot due to the simple fact that I have a social anxiety disorder and I feel like I'm bothering people, or worse, people think I'm stupid when I ask for help.
1 year is all I asked for. Entering college at 19 wouldn't have been too late or sinful. I understand there's pros and cons but I can say with certainty that the pros would've been outweighing the cons right about now. My physical and mental health has reached an all time low from prioritizing studies over myself and I work myself to the bone only to get some shitty grade in math. But no matter what I say, I just get the same answer: "if you think this is bad, just wait until you're older", "these are the best years of your life", "you'll thank me one day"... I hate it!!! I didn't want to go to college so early on!!!! I wanted to enjoy life!!! I came out of high school feeling overwhelmed and depressed and entered college with the same mindset!!! I haven't felt a moment of peace in so long, I'm just stressed out all the time !!!!!! This sucks!!!!! And now I'm the one who has to try and fix it because parents refuse to listen!!!!!!