We all know that school is important; it's something that is needed for when we “grow up" we use what we learn to obtain a "career". This is all well and good, but what if you don't know what you want to do? What if you are like millions of other kids forced to pick their career at 16? Is school really that helpful?
In today’s age somehow we are supposed to know exactly what we want to "do" before we finish grade 10 so we can pick all the right classes to move on to post secondary schooling. I don't know about you but I felt rushed, that I didn't even know what I was about when I was 16. How was I supposed to know what I would excel at?
Math? Science? Art? I loved it all. Ultimately science won the argument, I studied really hard and made sure I did well in my pre-reqs, and finally got accepted into university. I thought the hard part was over, that in 4 years I would be done school, ready to make a career in physics. I forgot one little factor though, what would I do with physics? How would this get me a job?
I thought that once I picked a field of interest that was that; I do four more years of school; How hard could that be? Secondary school doesn't prepare you for the harsh reality of the world, or what you will run into along the way. In high school we all heard that we could be doctors, lawyers, great artists but no one told us how we would get those amazing careers, they just said pick something and then you can be great!
I'm sorry to say, that is most defiantly NOT the case.
I went into university with high hopes that I would be just as awesome with physics as I was in high school, that as long a I did a little more work than I usually did I was sure to excel and eventually prove my time travel theory (no joke, it was an awesome theory). To my dismay I was confronted with a whole new reality, I was no longer an obedient student but somehow an adult and treated as one. At first that seemed great, until I realized that being treated like an adult meant that I had to act like one.
In my experience regarding school I was used to a teacher who diligently made sure that you never forgot to do an assignment, we had ample warning and reminders about up-coming tests, not to mention a sever degree of lenience when it came to late assignments. Well all that just disappeared, just vanished! I was treated as an adult, so naturally as an adult I had to stay on top of my responsibilities. I had to make sure that I finished that assignment because I would lose a large percentage of marks or get zero altogether, if I didn't show up for that test, well I would have to do really well on the next one to make up for those lost marks. By the time the first sets of midterms were done I didn't even know what happened? I was looking for my security blanket but it was gone, just ripped from my struggling clutches.
My transition was painful, I had to learn the hard way, and even then I was not prepared for what my life would be like as a post secondary student.
Next week I move onto phase 2: is this really what I want to do?
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