As you probably read from my long discussion - the way I rationalize it is that Sam didn't repeat a grade (though Dean may have).
Speaking as someone who is a year and a half older than Sam, yet graduated high school in '01, and was getting my Masters in '05 - and never repeated a grade either - I know that not everyone is in the exact same grade as their age group, even when there's no reason they shouldn't be. There's PLENTY of ways to rationalize it... the fact is that the boys moved around a LOT, often mid-semester, and who knows what schools they would have been put into and pulled out of - at some point. They're both little geniuses, so it would have been pretty easy for them to skip Sam a grade ahead at some point... or Sam or Dean could have gotten injured severely and missed too much school to advance a grade as well.
I also have plenty of friends who are Sam's age who decided to take a year off between high school and university - whether that was to save up money, take a few extra credit courses, or to backpack around Europe while they were still young and dumb.
So, just breathe through it. I know it's frustrating when the timing doesn't work out, but there's still plenty of great fic-fodder to explain why it doesn't! Think of it as mystery to be solved rather than a mistake that was made. ;)
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2013-03-12 05:47 pm (UTC)As you probably read from my long discussion - the way I rationalize it is that Sam didn't repeat a grade (though Dean may have).
Speaking as someone who is a year and a half older than Sam, yet graduated high school in '01, and was getting my Masters in '05 - and never repeated a grade either - I know that not everyone is in the exact same grade as their age group, even when there's no reason they shouldn't be. There's PLENTY of ways to rationalize it... the fact is that the boys moved around a LOT, often mid-semester, and who knows what schools they would have been put into and pulled out of - at some point. They're both little geniuses, so it would have been pretty easy for them to skip Sam a grade ahead at some point... or Sam or Dean could have gotten injured severely and missed too much school to advance a grade as well.
I also have plenty of friends who are Sam's age who decided to take a year off between high school and university - whether that was to save up money, take a few extra credit courses, or to backpack around Europe while they were still young and dumb.
So, just breathe through it. I know it's frustrating when the timing doesn't work out, but there's still plenty of great fic-fodder to explain why it doesn't! Think of it as mystery to be solved rather than a mistake that was made. ;)