Dustin Broke is 18 years old. He's living in a tiny, cramped single room apartment in Belladonna Cove. He's angry - angry at his mother, for being irresponsible and losing the two younger kids to the social worker, and worst of all blaming him (he doesn't know she's pregnant again, but that would just make him even more angry). Angry at his father for dying and leaving them all, angry at his girlfriend for having a perfect life. Angry with his stupid neighbours for fighting all the time and playing music at all hours of the day and night (he gives as good as he gets, though!)

He's out on his own, away from all of them, and it feels good. But what should he do with his life?? As a Fortune sim, he is torn between the lure of going into full time work now and getting his hands on some cash, or going to University to build up some higher earning potential. Currently he has a job in a convenience store. It's not glamorous, but it's honest work and better prospects than that criminal bunch he was involved with in Pleasantview.

His lifetime want is to reach the top of the Architect career, but in my headcanon, he's not really acknowledged that as a possibility yet. His one true hobby is Arts and Crafts, but again, he hasn't discovered this yet. I can't see any motivation, on his side, to go to college. He has no scholarships, although he has a good enough grade to study at Sim State. He's still in contact with Angela but he's keeping his distance, possibly through jealousy, so I can't see him emulating her. He grew up poor, it's not like there's anyone expecting him to go. The only neighbour he gets on with, Tiffany Sampson, is a dropout. He ran into DJ Verse at a community lot and they sparked up a conversation, but it didn't last very long.

But on the other hand, the lifetime want (requires an Art degree in my game) and the one true hobby match up beautifully, and if something inspired him now and everything went to plan, I could see him one day designing affordable safe housing for teen runaways so that other teenagers don't end up in the position he almost did. He is rolling a lot of wants for skills, but he's also rolling wants for earning money. But I guess I could send him to work at the cafe and bars. University is free in my game so he doesn't need a scholarship.

He has four days left until ageing up to adult, and I usually send them on this day. I have around sixteen in game hours to make the decision, and he's got work (or school, it's the day he has to choose) in the meantime.

If I send him, I need a believable motivation, and fast. I can't just send him because I want the story to work out perfectly. In my game not everyone is perfect, not everyone has a perfect life, not everyone gets their lifetime want fulfilled.

What would Dustin do?

Well...why did Tiffany drop out? What would she tell him about University? Does she regret dropping out herself? (She's a Knowledge sim, so probably.) Has she gained enough wisdom to see that Dustin would benefit from it and, being accustomed to hard work, would stand a good chance of making it through?

University should sound attractive because it's free, and the food is free, and he can easily make money there a number of ways. For one thing, "earn money" wants are fulfilled by grants. Tiffany and DJ can tell him about the money you get for good grades, which would be a big motivator - a lot more than he'd get as a Convenience Store clerk (especially if he does a lot of skilling on community lots and zips through the semesters with high grades).

And, since he's so angry - wouldn't he feel entitled to go? Wouldn't he want to go there and get good grades and just show everybody that he can cut it, that he doesn't need them, that he can make his own perfect life in spite of everything his mom did to hold him down and all the privilege Angela never acknowledged and all the times Gordon King tried to persuade him he wasn't good enough for anything except dealing drugs and cheating the system and all the times the teachers and administrators and social workers and other kids looked at him and sneered at him (or maybe, in Angela's case, fetishized him) as "a bad boy" just because he was trying to keep his family from going under from all the mistakes other people kept making?

I know I would. "Screw you all, I'm going to college and I am going to be awesome." Unless he's internalized all that bad boy stuff and is on a downward spiral.

Tiffany dropped out because her grades dropped too low, and she's pretty mad at herself about it and also not happy to be in that place. So she's probably not likely to be very positive about it.

I think your last paragraph is exactly what I am torn on. Whether he's internalised everything or whether he has a scrap of hope to turn that anger to a force for good. The free food and heavily reduced accommodation is a very good point, though.

Hi Dustin!

I went to university when I was about 30. It was just after a relationship that didn't work out and I was in a very emotional state, but somehow I turned all those pent up feelings into the motivation to work hard. It was the best time of my life! It should work the same for you. Channel your anger into the determination to do well. Prove to Angela and the world that your as good as her! If not better! You know you've got the ability. I know it can be harder to motivate yourself at 18 than at 30, and it's a pity that the Sims universities don't let you study later in life, but frankly I think you've seen more of life in your 18 years than I'd seen in my first 30. So, go for it Dustin! It worked for me and it can work for you.

And, when you get to university, work hard, play hard, and -- most important of all -- enjoy yourself!

I'd probably do what Andrew suggests. In my game, sims can go back to university if they want to. It's tougher - they can't get scholarships, and many of them will study from home because they have jobs and kids that they can't just drop - and it takes longer - because my aging mod is set up so I fudge things, time on-campus passes faster than in regular 'hoods, so while a teen sim going to uni gets back home after 8 days, an adult sim studying from home will have to spend 16 days of their actual life studying if they don't take any finals early.

But if a sim who didn't go to uni, dropped out or picked a bad major wants to go back and have a do-over? There's absolutely no reason why they shouldn't. After all, that's how real life works - who the hell actually knows what they're gonna do with their life at 18?

When my sims are at this point they usually join the military. I know that´s a dead beaten horse "if in doubt about yourself and don´t know what to do join the army", but perhaps you haven´t used this hook often before, so it might work for you. Or have him lose his job and start working as cafeteria worker, caretaker or doing some other rmenial task at campus for whatever reason.

The reasoning behind this: What you are actually doing is sending Dustin to your college subhood. Only he doesn´t declare a major and he lives on his own, not in a dorm and when he goes to his classes you need to call it differently (except if you decide to go the military route, then he´d be in a "dorm" - in the recruits barracks). Technically Dustin is a college student now, only you pretend he isn´t yet. He´s just working there for the high nosed wealthy kids what might make him even more angry. During the first four semesters Dustin finally realize his true calling (either his OTH or LTW) and goes to college for real.

I opened this thread expecting it to be boring and same old same old. But I actually found it interesting. I'm working on learning not to let all stories pan out, and giving some Sims a harder life, and this is very helpful

Poor Dustin, he need to move on and forgive his mother because Brandy has a hard life and no help raising the kids.
In my game I send Dustin to the University, I think it would be a very good idea to send him there, since you said his one true hobby is "Art and Craft.

Let his career track be an "Artist" and his "Major be Art" that is one thing University offers to Sims students. When he's finish at college, and get started into the Artist career, when he get to level 10 ( which is a Visionary ) he's be looking good.
And Since Dustin is a fortune Sims he will be bring home plenty of $$$$ a daily salary of $4,549 that will come to a Weekly average of $13,647 not bad for a kid that come from a broken family and living in a trailer home.

Dustin's anger, and the fact that nobody expects him to go to college, is exactly why he SHOULD go.
He's angry at his mother for what he sees as throwing away her chance of being someone, just to pop out endless offspring. He saw his parents settle for a crappy cramped trailer. He wants his life to be better than that. HE is better than that. He knows that Angela sees him a the stereotypical bad boy, and he also knows that while he might have drifted to the wrong side of the law occasionally, that's not where he belongs. Dustin's anger is enough to fuel his desire to be NOTHING LIKE his parents. He's going to get his degree, get a decent house and car. All those people who ever doubted him - he's going to show them, and prove them wrong.

Would he go to college in order to prove he's capable of taking care of his younger siblings, so he can get them back from social services? I think the early levels of the architecture career involve low-education-required construction work, so he might try a bit of that and then find he loved the work and wanted the degree.

With the hacks I have, I'd let him go to college, work, and get his younger siblings back while he's in college. And if he thought his mom had it hard . . .

Maybe something happens at that convenience store job of his? Maybe he overhears some architects talking, they forget some plans, he sees them and thinks he could do better. Maybe some customer is complaining about losing or not getting a job that would be perfect for them because a college graduate was hired instead. Maybe Dustin himself gets fired? Maybe he and Tiffany run into someone she knew from uni, and that person is now very successful (but maybe was poor in his/her early life)?

In short, I'd definitely send him to college, then let him really struggle while there because he spends half his time trying to make some money. (Bartending, DJ-ing, selling coffee...)

I think that Tiffany would try to get him to go to Uni. Angela would try to tell him that he's not cut out for it, and Dustin gets so mad that he breaks up with Angela. Dustin would start out struggling with his grades and trying to make money, but later on he discovers his lifetime wish (as an architect). Dustin and Tiffany can discover the feelings they have for one another and end up marrying (Dustin discovers that Tiffany is the only one who truly loved him for who he was, not just as a status symbol like Angela. He wants to marry and protect Tiffany so their children don't end up in the same situation that he grew up in.) When he graduates, he can adopt Beau and his younger siblings (or move them back in with Sim Blender or a similar mod and set them as siblings, so that their family relationship is more accurate.) Beau is upset at the world and goes down the criminal path that Dustin once went down, but Dustin and Tiffany try to get Beau on the right path. Angela is jealous of Tiffany and wants to try to get Dustin back, so Tiffany and Angela are bitter rivals. Eventually Angela gets over Dustin and finds someone else, but still hates Tiffany. If Angela and Tiffany both have kids, Angela's kids and their kids may end up either carrying the family rivalry to the next generation, or having a "Romeo and Juliet" forbidden love.

Of course, that's just my idea.

In my game, he turned out to be an outstanding citizen. His mom still lives in that old trailer, but she spruced it up a bit, and turned that spare bedroom into an arts and crafts room. Beau lives in Belladonna Cove with his newborn alien baby, Marcella. He was engaged to Ashley Pitts, but Ashley had an affair and ended things just a few days before they were scheduled to tie the knot.

(Baby number three never happened. Brandi miscarried before she even started showing).

Dustin, however, lives in the Pleasant household, now occupied by himself, Angela, and their two sons Bret and Brian. He has a college degree, and a rather substantial bank account. He's just one promotion away from reaching the top of the business career, and has a flourishing garden in the backyard to satisfy his nature needs (odd that his hobby is arts and crafts for you, in all of my playthroughs he's always been a nature sim).

As for you, and your Dustin... I have no idea. Have him fall for a college girl, and then he'll enroll himself just to be near her. He doesn't always need to end up with Angela. In fact, in most of my playthroughs he doesn't.