College is definitely way better, but high school isn't a steaming pile of shit like you make it out to be. No offense, but I think you're being elitist.
I'm not making it out to be a steaming pile of shit. I'm just saying that my particular high school is not just up to par with what I want. I know people that have taken the AP courses, and I've had to help them with their work because the teacher just straight up blows and the text sucks. I'd much rather get my tenured professors with nice textbooks. Granted, I'm generalizing, but for the most part my high school teachers have been more headaches than they have been helpful.
Not to mention, a LOT of AP courses is just bullshit coursework (e.g. do these worksheets that offer you no real insight, but just waste your time and significantly increase your workload). Yeah, college has bullshit coursework, but it's not required (and if so, usually not a large portion of the grade). My chem classes at the U (Freshmen chemistry 1 & 2) both had 'optional' problem sets [most of which I did to ensure that I knew how to do the problems] but at the end of the day, nobody gave a damn if I did it. In some instances, I was better off NOT doing them. At high school? My friends in AP Chem had to spend hours a night doing stupid problem sets because they were required to by the teacher.
If I were in your position, and I had to choose between your schedule or high school, I'd choose high school without a moment's hesitation. I wouldn't resign myself to that kind of relentless sleep deprivation for university classes, when I'd be taking them a year or two later anyways. I often go nights where I don't get a lot of sleep, and sometimes I get none at all, but it's not like a 5-day-a-week 30-weeks-a-year kind of thing. Also, high school affords a pretty good social life.
Yeah, I will admit that taken all of the night classes that I'm taking right now was a mistake in some senses. But in others, it's really quite good. Because of this night hell, I've developed a work ethic. My friends have remarked how I'm always doing work nowadays because I always come, steal one of their laptops, and go and write papers and do other work. You would seldom have seen me doing work last school year, and even less in high school. Plus, the having ridiculous hours has actually helped my social life. Since I commute, it's a whole different ballgame, as partying/drinking is out of the question (drinking and driving is fucking retarded). So I learned how to maintain friendships and hang out with people during the daytime, as nights/weekends are just way too busy for me. I see so many different friends and do different activites in addition to my homework that I just would not have done.
As for socializing in high school: that's all fine and dandy, except I had maybe four people I'd actually say were my friends at high school--and they're all gone, now. My high school kids and I just don't get along. They don't hate me anymore, and I don't hate them anymore, but we'd never be buddy buddy. At most, sticking around my high school would have resulted in me getting one or two more of them as friends. But had I stuck around and never gone to college, I would have never met my ex and my group of friends now, would never have learned life skills (socializing, responsibility in work/school, etc), and would probably be worse off than I am now. When I leave home for college (I'm not staying at home regardless of where I go to college), I know that I'll be ready for most anything that gets thrown at me because of the experiences I've had. Well, except food..I can't coook.
Ironically, it seems like your atheism is taking you full circle back to Christian morality and the ascetic ideal.
I'm not an atheist, nice try.
