It is that time of year again. We are inching towards the end of August, and all the little childrens' smiles are fading once more. Pencil cases are being pulled out of dusty drawers, and string bikinis are being tucked away for another long year.
Alas, it is school time again, and I can feel the universal groan of pain in my bones. Up here in snowy Canada (actually it is extraordinarily hot right now, but indulging Canadian stereotypes online is one of my favourite pastimes), high school begins after Labour day, on the 7th of September. This means that I have five days in which to mentally prepare myself for another agonizing school year. Of course, like any responsible and forward-thinking student, I've already done all the physical preparation. I've bought my back-to-school cardigans, plaid shirts and fun headbands. I've purchased the required agenda, pencil case, pencil case fillers, binders and shiny new school bag. I have chatted with my guidance counsellor and straightened out my schedule so that all my intelligent-sounding courses are on my timetable (case in point: Studies in Literature. Daunting, no?)
However. I have not been given any sort of instructions as to how to mentally prepare myself for another grueling year. This is something which, apparently, the school board and teachers and janitors and counsellors have decided that the students must do on their own.
So, in an attempt to prepare myself, I started thinking about school and its myriad facets. The cafeteria that has always reminded me of a holding pen for cattle. The girls in English class who text on their iPhones all period and ask me, in the last five minutes of the class, to explain to them the entire day's lesson. The friend of a friend with whom I have to feign enthusiasm about Justin Bieber.
But then I remembered that I was forgetting about a pretty major part of school. It's something a lot of high school students tend to forget, and I only caught my mistake a few days into my halfhearted preparation.
I forgot about the actual school part of school. You know, classes. Teachers. Textbooks. Learning. And I realized that school, and high school especially, is an extraordinarily special place. Elementary school is focused on giving you the basics in any and all subjects, and by university or college, you pretty much know what you want to do. High school, however, allows you to focus solely on yourself. Whatever your interests, whatever you want to learn and pursue, there is a teacher willing to dedicate his or her time to teaching it to you. It is a place created entirely so that teenagers can indulge their every whim and learn all about whatever it is that interests them. Of course, it's also about producing literate adults who can join the workforce, but more than that, it it provides us with a very important opportunity. It gives us - the teens - four years in which we can be undecided, and we can be passionate, and we can do whatever we want to do because we are being compelled to do what we want to do. I'm still pretty young, but I have a feeling that that opportunity doesn't show up too many times in life.
This year, I am taking three Science courses. I'm also taking a Studies in Literature course and two separate English courses, as well as a Functions class. I am taking all of those courses not because they are requirements for a job that will keep a roof over my head, but because they interest me, and because I can.
I think I'm prepared for another year of high school.
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