Uhh, highschool. Where parents send premature adults to get some valuable and applicable social skills. Highschool is a lot of things to a lot of people. It's where to discover who your meant to be, where you learn how the real world works, where you finally meet challenges that push you both mentally, physically and psychologically. Whether it be sports or examinations, everything pushes you. Talking about pushing peer pressure is a given. You think your gonna evade it till the end you realize that you were already being influenced from the beginning.
Well I'm here to tell you about my highschool experience. Yeah, it's not much to talk about but someone who I care about told me I should think outside the box and let's just say it was testing to say the least.
Just as all school calendars start, admission day. I really hated that day if you know what I mean. I was kind of a soggy sock in my first year let alone my first day. Im kind of a pessimist at heart but its no surprise as your about to know. Also I should probably sneak in a positive message as a learning opportunity by the end, probably. Anyways, lets dive in.
Admission day, the day every child drags off their children off to register them to prison, I mean to get a formal education. Actually, I was kinda amused that some people were actually happy to be going to school. Me, I was the stay at home staring at the screen the whole day type. I'm lazy by nature even when I try not to. My parents actually played a trick on me. I really wanted to go to a boarding school for my highschool years. I worked my brain off its hinges to get a passing mark in the national exams only to get tricked at the last moment. It was well played, but I wasn't gonna ride along like a good boy. I had to make things hard for them, it's kind of what we do, kids.
It all started with my Dad telling me I gotta wake up, for uniform fitting. I was so excited, I even skipped breakfast. I was following along so well with a smile till we reached a street where I saw a bunch of parents and their respective kids making a sharp turn. My brain told me I've been had but it could've been that uniform's were in season that year. They weren't, it was a day school admission day and a whole lot of people were lined up to register. It wasn't my best day since I thought I was going to an all boys boarding school. All the hype I built over the years gone in a millisecond. I swear I didn't look at my Dad the whole day, even when the teachers conducting the admissions were calling me out I was avoiding them on purpose. I had to do something to show them my anger.
The admissions were done by the afternoon. Really thought I would have that one day without being in that school, really lied to myself. Even after admission you have to stay behind till the day is done. Feel the school vibe as one teacher phrased it. The first week is always going to be the hardest no matter who or where you are. You have to memorize the classes, the teachers, your sitting arrangement, the time schedule for breaks and classes and most importantly the school layout—no one wants to end up in the wrong bathroom. Yeah, I might be writing this but your reading it so I know you know what I mean.
Funny thing about teachers, you are never going to like them on the first week, like ever. Unless your used to being a teacher's pet or something similar, a people pleaser as some may recognize. It's not a bad thing actually I've been there too but for me it was more like I was forced to. But we'll get there sooner or later. So, there are these teachers your brain is going to develop a kind of 'spidey-sense' towards. Don't worry, it's natural, just your brain telling to get the hell out of there or not to upset that teacher. But guess what, of course I couldn't have a normal week. I just had to stumble into her, her name, Madam Gemini. She had a ruthless stare that looked like the real adaptation of the fictional gaming character Goro from the Mortal Kombat gaming series. If you've never known shame in highschool you've never been in highschool. Madam Gemini just straight up uses me as a learning tool.
She walked from row to row calling out some of my classmates. Then I got picked, and it wasn't cause I had the best smile. Oh, I hated that teacher, she came and pointed at my shoes. Unfortunately, I had to start with unstandardized makeshift shoes. The embarrassment was hardcore. Come on, there were girls in the class. She was really lucky I didn't have power over her existence cause she would have been gone. So she was just pointing out that any shoe style apart from the standard one was not allowed. You know, I wouldn't have mind her using her descrition and stating the rules before using me as an educational dummy.
Have you ever been tardy or late on your first week of school? Well I have and it wasn't a good experience. It was the third day after I had just been admitted. The school only issued two pair of uniforms per student. And as lazy as I was and still am, forgot to wash mine after the first day. How was I supposed to know you alternate cleaning and wearing your uniform from day to day? And plus they only gave us one school sweater each, how are you supposed to alternate one sweater?! Anyway, the teacher at the gates was hardboiled. His name was Mister Okun. He had a large build and frame, complimented by his rather superior surface area. Oh, in lesser developed schools we don't get tardy points or detention, we get the cane or go home free card.
I still remember how I wore my wet trousers and sweater to school that day. As I'm saying this now I realize how desperate I seemed in those days. It was like that week was cursed or something. How could I have had so much bad luck in one week. And even then Mr. Okun wouldn't let anyone get passed, even the first years. Surprisingly there were no punishments the next day so it's all well that ends well.
Come to think about it, I also had diarrhoea, headaches, drowsiness, loss of appetite and a lot of short attention spans during that first week. How the hell am I still alive right now?! I guess only God knows what God knows. I was still bummed about the public mixed day highschool thing. But I soon came to realize that there is a benefit to being sent to a school mixed with girls. Don't get me wrong, it's not fun having to study like that sometimes but the benefits are worth while. And I did tell you it was a rather peculiar highschool experience. Just wish it was more calmer and unassuming, my poor heart was running all over.
The most hard thing I learned in highschool is managing the subjects. How do you listen to twelve people on the same day and still remember the first guy or lady? I'm just gonna say this right now, if you had the attention span to keep up, you are royalty. The most challenging times were before and after lunch, summary, the afternoon. The heat was messing up my brainwaves so badly sometimes I would blackout right in the middle of a lesson then I'm back at the end. It was like my mind took a power nap with my attention span. Without textbooks school would be a literal prison if it wasn't already. I think the people or person who invented them should have won a medal or something.
The person who invented school probably hated free will and freedom of choice. He even made it out as a rule and right. Don't get me wrong, I loved school at the end. But at the start it starts to feel like boot camp training in the army. You have to wake up so early your eyes wake up before your brain does. Then you find yourself in the shower scrubbing your back with a loaf of bread. And yes, it happened to me, once, only once. Then there is the fatigue. You think sitting and listening is easy till you sit on that chair for an hour. You will be begging your back for some support but it won't help you. Glad they invented backrests, but they also knew if they were made fully of cushioning material like cotton students would be drifting off to wonderland due to the comfort. So they invented them out of wood, now my back can cry even more. At least it was something, some schools in less privileged areas don't have the luxury of chairs or even appropriate learning resources. So I'm grateful for what I had. Energy drinks in-between lessons would have been a good adaptation for school curriculums just to say. Cause if not for my will to finish the day and finally get back to my bed I would be crying all through the lessons.
Luckily I stuck to it and got through my first week. And it was a week I will never forget. Please, in the future I hope they invent more comfortable classroom chairs. I think my back developed abs during my entire school year.
The true lesson about it is that there will always be challenges at the beginning. I was lucky enough to be stubborn. But not all of us have the same starting conditions. It doesnt mean, that we should just give up or throw fits unlike me. It means we should strive through the cloud of doubt that is always plaguing us, pulling us back and telling us we can't, it's too much. The beginning is always tough for highschool. Developing social for others is unavoidable, however with help you can always find a way through it. I had it, and was lucky enough to meet a good friend, his name is Ian. He was much older than me, ironically I was the one who talked to him first. If even you can accomplish making one friend in your first week. You have made a very big milestone in your book of accomplishments. It's kind of funny since I was just stumbling around trying to find where to go.