So baby girl tell me whatchu gon’ do?

What’s up party people?

R: I still can’t believe you called me a six

Isaac: Don’t think of it as an insult, think about it as math.

My mother, who heard via one of my aunts, recently told me that one of my cousins is considering dropping out of high school (skipping year twelve) in order to go straight to TAFE. Naturally, they all freaked out and put the Batman signal up in the sky hoping I’d intervene and talk my cousin out of what they thought was an incredibly stupid life decision. I’m going to talk to the dude, but not to talk him out of it, I’m doing it because I care about him and I just want to see that he’s making this decision for the right reasons.

Look, some of us may look back fondly upon high school whilst wearing our rose tinted glasses, but I remember warily that it wasn’t always great. Especially year twelve, even though that’s when I bonded with all my classmates, the HSC was not a walk in the park. Though the content and workload I’ve faced in university has proven to be a lot more difficult, the emotional, mental and even physical strain the HSC had upon me far outweighs anything I’ve dealt with since I stepped into UNSW.

And for anyone who took the HSC seriously…think about all the early mornings, the late nights, the bunker mentality in which you’d lock yourself in your room/ study / local library / not so local library. The stress that surged through you everytime an assessment task was around the corner, when your marks were dished out, when you tried to calculate your UAI (Editor’s note: You younglings can hold that ATAR to your chests) and realised that you would probably only be qualified to do Aboriginal Studies at ANU.

It wasn’t always graduations and celebrations.

I want to make sure my cousin is pursuing this because he has no desire to be an academic, and I want to make sure he’s ready for intense labour.

Look…most of our parents encourage us to get an education because most of the time our degrees will get us a job that requires little to no physical labour. Being a lawyer, engineer, doctor or crime prevention specialist (Editor’s note: Hehe, nice plug) may be difficult, but you won’t be needing a hard hat for any of those professions. Our folks try to nudge us in that direction just to spare us physical strain…but sometimes, people rather be tired physically then exhausted mentally.

And I respect that.

I want to make a crack about this

“I don’t do a lot of push ups, but I get a tonne of exercise just pushing my luck”

Hehe, yeah…I’m good.

Anywho, on to the next one:

The Exam ’11

“I’m ready to die”

Twenty year old Isaac whispered the line straight out of Harry Potter to his empty can of Berry flavoured V as he strode towards Randwick Racecourse. He had one exam left, however it would prove to be the most challenging exam of his academic career: advanced statistics awaited. On the bus to the venue, he had contemplated some last minute cramming, but  decided not to. It was one of those rare occasions in which Isaac had already given up, he was ready to accept the failure and hope that the course coordinators would give him a PC (Pass conceded) based on his solid results from previous academic tasks.

That was his only hope, it was not a strong one.

He felt hollow, he felt defeated…he felt like King Leonidas at the Hot Gates..knowing that he would fall to the Persians but standing ground and hoping to give them Hell before he fell.

****

Five minutes until the exam was set to start and the students were finally able to enter the venue. Isaac, filled with energy as his mind had chosen not to go over the little that he actually knew, began hopping around hoping to motivate his classmates. Yelling out encouragement and random rap lyrics, he shut up as soon as he crossed the threshold. His eyes closed momentarily and once again “I’m ready to die” escaped his lips.

There would be no happy ending for King Leonidas.

(Editor’s note: He passed. Talk about f*cking melodramatic).

Until next time folks! Stay classy!

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