I dropped out of high school when I was 16, after I had a huge argument with my English teacher over the meaning of the word ’existentialism.’

Ferguson frames a pivotal biographical moment—leaving school early—as both comic anecdote and commentary on temperament. The “huge argument” over a philosophical term suggests a young person intensely invested in ideas yet ill-suited to institutional authority or classroom orthodoxy. The specific choice of “existentialism” hints at adolescent preoccupation with meaning, identity, and authenticity, while the punchline implies that disputes over definitions can have outsized real-world consequences. In Ferguson’s broader public persona, such stories often function to recast nontraditional paths as intellectually driven rather than merely rebellious, turning a dropout narrative into one about curiosity, contrarianism, and self-directed education.