Quit college for cycling?

Mushroom farming is not on my list of well paid jobs...

On the other hand I know electricians and the like(tradesmen) who make a shedload, money isn't everything but it enables you to do things that without you would find difficult.

Stay in school, it's a short time in the larger scheme of things.

Sorry, but all the people I know who have 'just enough to survive' aren't very happy.

This isn't my experience at all. But I've lived mostly in the Devon, Cornish and Gloucestershire countryside.

And hang out with hippies.

o_o

im the same age as you and my view is that even though i really don't want to be in college, im gonna try my hardest to get some decent grades so that i have the option of doing something well paid if required. i really dont want to, i want to ride my bike all day and live in a small house with nice people.

What would your ideal job be? Why not finish your course anyway if you haven't got that long to go and if you don't know what your ideal job would be (I didn't at 17 and I doubt many people do) why not use the time on the course to figure it out. And try to get as much cycling in as possible.

The 'year out' idea is a really good one, it could be a great way to see the world and find out more about life in general, and something you could combine with your passion for cycling. Why not finish your course so you have the qualification under your belt if you need it later (you never know) and once done go travel for a year, maybe a huge cycling tour of Europe? It's also something you could plan while being annoyed at being stuck in college and use to reward yourself for sticking at the course and completing it.

Tl;Dr

Stay at college, complete the course, do as well as you can. I dropped out halfway through a 2 year electricians course when I was younger, at the time I decided I didn't want to work in the field. One of my mates is a sparky now and earns over £50,000 a year, about twice what I earn, so did I make the wrong choice? Also, he doesn't hate his job.

Also, what is riding on a budget? Surely if you haz bike, you can ride?

x500000

if you have no interest in it.
why do it.
just go for a good time -youre only young once party like its 1988 is my advice.
too much miserabalism about these days.

+1

Act up.

Although he's happy at the moment,

end

The 'year out' idea is a really good one, it could be a great way to see the world and find out more about life in general, and something you could combine with your passion for cycling. Why not finish your course so you have the qualification under your belt if you need it later (you never know) and once done go travel for a year, maybe a huge cycling tour of Europe? It's also something you could plan while being annoyed at being stuck in college and use to reward yourself for sticking at the course and completing it.

Also +several. From my experience/people I have known etc., year out = no negative effects & great potential positive contribution to `staying sane' or whatever; dropping out = wasting your time with nothing to show for it & gradually leaving you with fewer and fewer options as time goes on

the best advice ive been given was 'never start anything unless you mean to finish it'. Even if you dont enjoy it much, sticking stuff out will give you a good habit that is looked upon well by just about anyone, from recruiters to mates. I dropped out of uni for a year but went and got a job, got my shit together and then went back and finished my degree, best decision i ever made and it does give you a feeling of achievement when you finish as it was that much harder for you, and the hardest things in life always seem to be the most rewarding.

Stick with it. Weird but it may lead to better things. I was crap at academia (I spelt my name with my A-Level grades), and only started an A-Level in photography because I thought it would be a doss. Turns out I found something I had a real passion for - which I hadn't got for anything at that point - and still loving it ten years later.

The gap year after the course is a good one.

If you really can't take it, defer it and take some time out. Discover what you're about, what you want (at the least you'll find things you don't want). I wished I'd done this. Otherwise finish it and then be done.

I stuck it out.... and Im sitting in an office, surrounded by cunts, changind the colours on spreadsheets.

Fuck that nighthunter! Soar like an eagle! Go and live on some ashram in india or something.

I spelt my name with my A-Level grades

snap

Finish the course. It's a dull option, but it's a decent 'fall back' plan if everything goes tits up.

I went for the easy cash option when I was younger and hitting my head on the glass ceiling of earnings was quite a fucking shock, I can tell you. Now I'm looking at a fucking tall hill of re-training whilst still working AND trying to be a decent parent, all at once.

You can do the course and still have shit loads of fun, no problem. If you're 17 and studying part time and working part time there's still a lot of time left over for fucking around, if you're struggling you're doing it wrong!
It might sound fun to 'live for today' and just get by on minimum because cash isn't so important, but once you rack up some serious financial commitments (wife, kids, house, car) the older you will look back on the younger you and either call you a lazy cunt or a wise young man. I was a lazy cunt and ended up in a job I hate.

A good third option for you would be to drop this sparky course and find one you actually want to do. 17 is really young, but it's a fucking horrible age in that the decisions you make now will have serious repercussions in the future. Find a trade you ACTUALLY want to do and stick at that, but don't lob it all in to ride your bike and pick mushrooms. Any knob head can do that, and you don't strike me like a knob head.

I know I sound like your dad, but I'm probably old enough to be your dad.
Know get undressed, it's bath time.
starts to undress too

When I was seventeen the biggest mistake I made was staying school. I was never academic, but my parents pushed me to do A levels, sent me to a sixth form that didn't offer anything I was interested in, and we're too snobby to let me do what I wanted, which was leave and get an apprenticeship as a car mechanic. At 16 it would have been possible. At 17 when I did finally quit in a haze of depression and a bit of a drink problem it was too late, and most apprenticeships were not open to over 16s. I ended up going to sea, followed by 5 years of wasting my life smoking tons of weed and hanging out with my mates, doing as little as would keep me in dole money.

It was no life really and I got bored with it. I had enough motivation to get my arse to university, do a course in a subject I was really interest in and get a good degree. I've never regretted that decision. For a start I met my wife there. During my time there the web was born, and I got good at making sites for it, which eventually, after a huge amount of hard work, became a rewarding and lucrative career. I love my job, and I always think how lucky I am to be able to say that. I paid for my studies by doing shit low end jobs in factories, which I coped with by reminding myself that it was only temporary and would lead to better things. But there were people in those factories who's entire career, the thing that they had been doing for 20 years and would, if they were the lucky ones, still be doing for another 30, was putting a switch in a plastic housing on a production line. 400 an hour. For 8 hours. 6 nights a week. For 50 years. That's what having no qualifications gets you.

So what's my point?
a) dropping out and doing nothing is immediately gratifying but ultimately damaging. You think you're bored now? Imagine being bored forever, because you'll only ever be able to get boring, badly paid, soul destroying jobs unless you get qualified.
B) making anything of your life requires you to work bloody hard. No ifs no buts. Whether its on your education, training yourself in something, or just putting in the hours or taking on extra responsibility, if you don't already have it, you can get it only by working hard.
C) life is too short to waste doing anything you don't want unless you know it will lead to something you do. Why the fuck are you doing an electrical installation course if you have no interest in the subject?Quit and do a course in something that appeals to you.
D) you have the luxury of being young. Provided you don't end up in prison or something, you'd be surprised at just how badly you can go off the rails and then still put your life back in order. If you want to quit and ride your bike, maybe it would be the right thing for you. You can do it till you're bored and then sort your career out next year.

Are you intending on cycling paying the bills, ultimately, or the mushroom factory/similar?

Stick with it. You might think it's a waste of time now, but you don't always get to do something you enjoy. You've got what, another year and a half left? That'll fly by. I've done countless shitty jobs, and i hated my degree, but i stuck with it and got my current (unrelated) job because of it.

Do the course + go to uni/get a decent job = ride all the time. Profit?

Cheers for the heads up guys, I have decided attend college today, its only a half day anyway so I can ride afterwards :)
All your opinions have brainwashed me, but there is some great advice here, its kind of inspired me to prove to myself I can pass, but thats why I love cycling so much, I get to challenge myself, and always push a step further, Im still trying to decide whether I can accel enough in cycling in the time I would usually be in college to make college not worth it, but until I decide, the best thing I can do is do my best in college.

And to the people who are confused at 'cycling on a budget', I am currently riding a bike with a worn headset, a wobbly bottom bracket, toe straps when I really want clipless, and I also have a front track wheel as it was the cheapest I could find, but I dont want to complain because the list could be much longer, but if it was, I wouldnt owe my mum £100 ;)

Are you intending on cycling paying the bills, ultimately, or the mushroom factory/similar?

Cycling, I was born to...

Can i just ask what type of riding? Honestly, if you're not already well known now, then you're probably not going to be in 1.5years.

Cycling, I was born to...

I like your style.

Do you compete?

I was going to say- what does your Coach advise?

If he or she reckons you have what it takes, then I'd listen to them.

If they reckon that you are going to be a gifted sportive rider, then staying in college might be a plan.