[hj5821cgirl]

I know some people will see this as a problem of character pertaining to the more privileged youth of the world, but please bear with me as I'm trying to adapt and I'm sure others are in the same boat.

Does anyone know some strategies or have personal accounts of how they came to terms with the setup of society? For example, some difficulties I face are forcing myself to focus on homework when uninspired and normally studying is an extracurricular hobby for me. But trying to meet rigid expectations and deadlines on something I regularly used to see as an impulsive and creative pastime sucks all of the pleasure from a previously favored subject leaves me with a sense of hopelessness for my future. Then I even find myself avoiding the subject long after, as if I developed an aversion to it because of the regulations of the class setting. I'm sure everyone has faced problems with aligning their interests and ways of life to what society expects from them to be able to comfortably sustain themselves. So how do we learn to accept the requirements of the world in a more optimistic (and therefore less harmful) way?

[Perna]

Hi, hj5821cgirl, welcome to PsychCentral (PC). When I do not like an assignment I use my creativity to work within the framework, make that my challenge. For example, when I was a senior I had to take a freshman course I did not take earlier and the rules of the papers we had to write, etc. were "babyish" and I wrote the professor an email and explained and asked could I do something else but he said "no" so I then set it up to see just how creative I could be within the confines of the rules. It's kind of like thinking of 10 uses for a brick? That sort of thing?

Too, I prefer online classes because they give a bit more freedom of where I have to participate, and by when. I am taking an online course now and have a paper due next week but have been working on it since the moment the topic became available (because I wanted to) so I'm finished now and have to wait to hand it in or it will look like I have not spent enough time on it

When I was little I use to climb on my bedroom dresser to survey my room from that perspective; now I would try altering when I got up or went to bed, where I went to study, how I studied, etc., to try and find something that got back interest in a subject (I do not read textbooks, for example but ask/answer questions about a subject, researching on the Web or in groups with others (like here, were I studying "psychology" for example)) or I invent my own school and subjects/texts and create workbooks, etc. whatever appeals to me within the confines.