The first thing she did when she woke up was check her Twitter feed. As she scrolled down through, she saw retweets and direct messages shaming her.

The tweets were about her and a classmate at a party over the weekend, and almost all of them were either exaggerations or outright lies. Her nervous stomach turned in on itself. She dreaded going to school and facing all the stares and whispers.

High school is notoriously full of drama, and many students are faced with situations similar to this fictional story. Now there’s a way to avoid all the drama, according to a billboard in Mills River — Drop out of school and get your GED instead.

At least that’s how the billboard, as well as others all across Western North Carolina and a recent television advertisement are being interpreted.

It’s an appeal for a shortcut degree, reading, “Skip the drama, get your GED.”

The GED, or General Educational Development test, is a compilation of social studies, sciences, language arts and math tests at the American high school level. Those taking the tests, whether they are students wanting a quick way out of high school or people who dropped out and need proof of education, must make a score equal to or greater than what high school graduates would score. Though they are legally equivalent, the GED is valued lower than a diploma by colleges and many employers.

Even the military has a limit on how many GED recipients it will accept, and those accepted are often ranked lower than those admitted with a high school diploma or college education.

A GED is not a diploma, not even close, but at least those who take the test have some proof of their qualifications.

That said, the GED has been beneficial for those who dropped out of high school. According to www.adcouncil.org, one of the organizations that funded the advertising campaign, 37 million adults do not have a high school diploma and must work multiple jobs to support themselves without a GED as a credential. Along with Dollar General and its Literacy Foundation, the Ad Council has helped more than 600,000 adults get a GED after dropping out.

In a joint press release, the two organizations argued that the “Skip the Drama” message of the billboard refers to the drama of trying to find a job as a high school dropout without a GED.

The Ad Council and Dollar General published a joint press release on Aug. 14, 2014, explaining the context of the advertising campaign and what the groups meant to convey.

But their message angered many.

Instead of communicating the message of skipping the drama of finding a job without a degree or diploma, they read the billboard as encouragement for students to drop out of school. Facebook users have tagged Dollar General in posts about their disappointment with the retailer. Some have said they will never shop at the store again.

“Skip the drama, get your GED” ­­­— as an advertisement, the awareness campaign missed the mark. Instead of leading people to get a GED to benefit their careers, the message has been widely misunderstood.

Wingspan staff members recently saw the billboard in Mills River and were shocked that anyone would encourage students to drop out of high school, so the message Dollar General and the Ad Council intended is not the message people are getting. High school students who behave responsibly, focus on school and control their use of social media get a diploma drama-free without dropping out. It is hard to understand why advertisers would not test market their message before sending it.