Originally Posted by
sycld
I can tell you what he's "doing here," Cryptic. He's only thinking about his life in the short-term, what he wants to do tomorrow. He's not even considering a single long-term consequence of any of his actions. That's why people do things which seem absurd and self-destructive.
Sure he could stay in school another year, but he doesn't want to. He wants to get a job and make money now (wow, minimum wage is a lot!!!), even though he'll be making that or just a little more for the rest of his life. School just sucks too much to stick it out for a single year more and try to get a diploma, even though a real high school diploma is better than and ultimately faster for him to obtain than even a GED, which is not completely equivalent no matter what the "E" stands for.