Courage to quit

Senior Destiny Allard makes her way to the biology classroom, withdrawal form in hand. Her tear ducts begin to swell as she asks science teacher Jeff Trapp to sign her request to drop his Advanced Placement biology class.

“I wasn’t really doing well in the class,” Allard explained. “So, I just decided it would be better for me to quit. That way, I could focus more on AP World. And, I had a job; I wanted to be able to focus on that too.”

Students know that making the decision to quit a class, sport or job can be daunting. However, sometimes it’s necessary to overcome it for the betterment of the individual. Allard observes the positive aspects of dropping AP Biology.

“Now, I have more time to focus on other things,” she said. “I actually have time to hangout with friends and study more for AP World, so I could excel in the class.”

Allard isn’t the only one who has conquered the tough to decision of quitting. Senior Charlotte Balkus was forced to make the decision of whether or not she wanted to remain on the basketball team for her final year.

“My senior year, I decided I did not want to play basketball because my heart just was not in it anymore,” Balkus said. “The hardest part about not playing basketball was this quitter image people just labeled me as. Quitting really showed me who truly has my back as I start making decisions that are best for myself. I lost a lot of friends but I also gained so many true people who love me no matter what.”

Quitting is not a challenge mutually exclusive to high school students. Stockbridge alumni Bailey Goss had to make the decision to drop out of college when he realized it didn’t suit his needs.

“I was probably going through one of the hardest time of my life while I was there. I was struggling to figure out what it was that I wanted to do with my life,” Goss said.  “I had gone to Illinois to go to college, so I was away from everybody that I knew. There was a lot situations balling up slowly and painfully that finally drove me to quit.”

Even though Goss’s situation was not favorable, he thinks it was one of his greatest learning experiences.

“It’s taught me a lot about, more or less, relying on myself,” Goss said. “There wasn’t a lot, but there were some things that pushed me towards to go college in the first place. Looking back on it now, I wasn’t ready to go.”

Goss’s experiences lead him to an impactful discovery concerning his own happiness.

“Being unhappy is the worst feeling in the world,” Goss said. “And, having been at a situation where I was the most unhappy I had ever been in my life, the relief that came after quitting college was huge; it was an enormous weight off of my shoulders at that time. So, don’t ever think in the back of your mind, ‘This is what I should be doing.’ If you’re not happy, don’t do it.”