Am I being stupid?

In March/April I was told i'm not going to be sitting my (I)GCSE's(reason isn't really important), i'm 16, I got really angry but none of my friends,family and adults I knew couldn't understand why? "Its only ONE year behind, when you leave uni and go into the world of work, no ONE CARES and you'll look stupid for caring by that age, people take gap years, drop out of uni, go back to uni, some people retake GCSE, A-levels,uni start uni "late"(after the age of 18 going onto 19 years old) and as mature students, some people get put back a year, its not even bad" but I can't help feeling behind everyone else my age???

I'm also HOMESCHOOLED and wanted to go to college, but all these adults are saying i'm being silly and being small minded, I can go to college and do gcse's or level 1 or short courses and a-levels arent the only route, I actually got onto a BTEC Level 2 course but I don't really want to go down the vocational route? I just wanted to do gcse's a-levels uni work?


I know exams aren't everything, I know I can't do anything now but I just can't help feeling behind,seeing people on Facebook my age talking about going to college to do their A-Levels I just get called stupid by everyone, am I being stupid?


Please no-one post anything sarky or mean like (' oh god you've come here for sympathy, f off)

No, you're not being stupid. Your education is being hindered by some reason that you clearly don't agree with and you're upset about it- this is a normal reaction.

As for them not understanding why, it appears that they think the reason they gave you is worth waiting that extra year. Try to ask them all to sit down with you, and then calmly explain to them why you don't think the aforementioned reason is worth waiting the extra year.

No, you're not being stupid. Your education is being hindered by some reason that you clearly don't agree with and you're upset about it- this is a normal reaction.

As for them not understanding why, it appears that they think the reason they gave you is worth waiting that extra year. Try to ask them all to sit down with you, and then calmly explain to them why you don't think the aforementioned reason is worth waiting the extra year.

Tbh in a sense ( even though I don't want to admit) they're right to tell me to wait but I just feel behind, we've talked and i've moved on(in a sense, I was crying, thinking its the end of the world, and throwing tantums..) but is it stupid to feel behind everyone else? I just feel behind and they tell me i'm stupid for feeling behind.

Again, it's not stupid. You see your friends moving forwards whilst you still feel like you're in the same place. It's natural to feel this way. I'm glad that you've moved on from crying and throwing tantrums, because it's certainly not the end of the world.
You have to remember that no one has a perfect life. Everyone reaches points in their lives where things don't go according to plan. It's how you deal with these occasions that will help define you as a person.

All I can say is if you don't want to feel behind, do something useful this year. For example, get relevant work experience out of the way for any university courses that you plan on doing in the future, volunteer at charities or animal rescue centres, learn a new instrument or a language and so on. You could even just get a job and start saving for special occasions/ driving lessons/ uni.

If you do something like this then you actually gain something over your age group, because whilst you will eventually end up taking the exams that they took earlier, how many of them will get to do those things that you would be doing now?
Don't think of this as a setback, think of it as an opportunity to get things out of the way early.

Thankyou X

My pleasure I wish you all the best!