Reflecting On High School As A Graduate
"School is not the end but only the beginning of an education." Calvin Coolidge.
Graduating is a bit of a strange feeling. For some, it hits hard in the real world, while others ease into it. We will certainly reflect upon these days as some of our best. What other opportunity allowed us to be with our mates six hours a day, five days a week?
As a newly graduated high schooler, there's a lot to reflect and learn from my time.
For me, the school was a nuisance that stopped those who truly knew what course of action to take. The school environment provided support that the real world doesn't. My mindset around the end of schooling may seem 'elitist' when met with the average. School took a large chunk of time from us. It became of more a necessary than a necessity. However, new freedom creates opportunity to live the life we want.
The System Emplaced
The path of high school was very linear in its nature. After each year and completion of work, you would progress to the next grade until reaching the holy grail of graduating grade 12.
I've previously written about how life can be characterised by games with sets of rules. I had associated school with a particular set of rules that seemed to achieve the 'success' some would consider for a high schooler.
- Listen to what you're told.
- Do what you're told.
School was very much about authority and control over the student. Although they might spout about taking ownership of one's own learning, it denies the curriculum that obviously dictates the student's learning. Truthfully, if I had taken ownership of my learning, I would have researched how to create wealth and uploaded the necessary mindsets for success in the real world. There are no subjects in making money; a necessity in living in the economics of society. The whole school system was created to produce workers: that's it. And, you get taught by government workers who uphold the system that pays their salary.
Why did I not fight against the authority? My understanding of rewards. The game was to learn and understand the content to be prepared for assessments. Outside the walls of the curriculum, getting an A in any subject isn't impressive. It is only valued as a success because the school dictates it so. Being above average and topping classes have no weight in the real world. I still played the game because I was forced into it. I still somewhat regret not dropping out of grade 10 and earning a living as a high in demand tradesmen in my town.
"Do your best."
What I can give credit to the school system is learning to do the work that you don't desire to do. Students don't have the motivation to do these stupid subjects as there is no real intrinsic reward. "An education is the reward." As for the average, they will not likely understand that learning, systems and processes, were the main objective of the curriculum. A high school diploma only displays your ability to go through school and passing. What if they were rewarded cash for completing high school? More motivation and desire to pass would exist. Our livelihoods and lifestyle can depend on the money earnt; hence when we have a job, we are more inclined to do it as we are being paid. Doing a shitty job would increase the likelihood of terminating employment, threatening the lifestyle we built with our income. Still, I was only motivated and acted out of the principle of doing one's best. It would have been easier dropping out and learning a trade than juggling six subjects worth of content and doing these exams.
For The Ones Who Know Their Path
It is common to not know what someone wants to do after school. But school seems like the slow lane for the ones who know what their dreams and chosen paths are. School provides ample time for the ones who are still contemplating their next move on the board.
"An education is the necessary basis for life." Is it really? The universities make the school leavers go through the ATAR system, only for it to not matter after a year. Let's not mention the bridging courses, god forbid! Anything in life takes speed. School is too slow for the ones who have already made up their minds. Instead of doing six subjects, nearly half probably not relating to my degree, how about only three?
The system does not think in individuals, only in cohorts. It would take too many resources and time to individually cater to each person's education. That is why it becomes your responsibility to life-long learning after high school. The system held you accountable through your teachers, expulsion, punishments, your parents, and your fellow peers. In the real world, it's usually you who has to hold account for your learning. And I'm not talking about the education you consume by sitting down in a classroom environment. Learning from your own experiences and reflecting upon one's and others' mistakes are better teachers than content deliverers.
That is why I am adamant about attending university for a Bachelor in Commerce majoring in Economics, Banking and Finance. My end-term goal is to be an entrepreneur who achieves all forms of freedom: financial, time and location freedom. What is the likelihood that the lecturer before me is in the current position I want to be in? Fake teachers can be detrimental when pursuing your chosen path, especially if they have not walked it. It becomes our responsibility to seek the right mentors, thus my own learnings from them.
School Is No Emulation Of The Real World
It would be cruel to let a child carry the burden of responsibilities. Only when we leave the gates of our school as graduates: does the world's weight finally rest on our shoulders. Its brutal, unpredictable and chaotic nature will forge a sharp sword or a dull and useless blade. Until then, the school only 'prepares' our future citizens. Rather than enforcing the mentality of reality:
Sink; or swim.
If we needed help, there was always someone a part of the system to help us. From the perspective of cruelty, who's to say you deserve that help? The only inherent reason is you are a member of the organisation that is called a school. In the real world, there might be no one to help you. You have your family and friends. But the real internal battles take an individual. What makes businesses provide their value through their help? Usually, it's what value you provide: money. Fair to argue that adults should take authority over the matters of a child. Certainly. Such a support system that schools have provided for children will not exist in the real world. The schools seem aware of this fact in their goodbye speeches. But never beforehand.
Entering A New Hierarchy, A New Set Of Rules
The definition of success is construed differently outside the school gates. The game has changed indefinitely.
A mate of mine from my home group room would comment the day it will hit for the popular kids. She said they will be slapped with real life, and they no longer can live that high school life of popularity. I thought her desire was out of wanting to see them fail. A sense of justice or balance, knowing the social success they received in their rigged game of theirs.
Value that popular kids provide is entertainment. It seems the more obvious contributor of value as more people value entertainment over education. Those who want to get their work done find them annoying. They resort to being clowns and nuisances for their own amusement and at the cost of others. It doesn't help they are forced by the government to attend. And education is a human right most of the developed world takes for granted. If entertainment is valuable, those who can entertain will be at the top of that hierarchy.
From general observations, popular kids are usually those who play a sport or are 'attractive'. Why I put attractive in quotation marks is, as conventionally, they are. If someone only derives their self-worth from their looks, though, they can be self-entitled without needing to have developed any other value. It is well-justified as if everyone else perceives value: it thus becomes valuable. The perception of value is characterised by the relationship between scarcity and demand. Attraction is demand. So few people being attractive is scarce. Perhaps in school, it's an even bigger rort. Think of the cohort sizes and the school population. Those kids are not competing with the rest of the world's different hierarchies. Only the school's. They are only admired because other popular kids in their groups think they are so. It's a level of corruption, or influence, helped by conventional attraction and social hierarchy.
This is transferable to real life. In a world that predicates people's looks, it is usually the women who can climb that ladder. However, the game that the men play is totally different. A male's competence and ability to bring things to the table will influence their place in the social hierarchy. They start playing with players in the larger society. It's a greater competition compared to school. It becomes a competition of dominance.
However, from what I've always thought, I was someone who played a different game from the popular kids in school. I didn't attempt to be involved in their own social hierarchy. The friends I hanged around, from what I observed, elevated our statuses as a whole. It also helped that the four other male school captains I worked with were a part of my boys. So, being at the top of the school hierarchy in terms of position and captaincy never let me play the 'popular kid' game. Everyone already knew who I was, or at least heard the name. Being smart in academics can certainly help elevate your status amongst the plebs and the average.
It seems 'intelligence' and 'academics' are highly valued because it is school. Those are characteristics that get you the best results for assessments. But looking at a real-world context, being intelligent means being adaptable to knowledge and applying it in action. A person who can adapt and evolve quickly will survive and excel. Charles Darwin would characterise a species' evolution by attributing to its survival.
The Mindset After High School
Leaving the venue from our school formal, I exchanged a few words with a friend. My black bow tie was undone, and my dinner jacket was folded upon my arm. My mind was thinking about bed. The talk of the town was about the after-party.
I was polite, asking if my friend was going to the party. He said no, followed with,
"I don't want to party, Denzil. I need feel I earnt it."
"Let's party when we are 30, then. When you are a high-ranking officer in the Air Force, and when I'm a millionaire!"
After I got picked up from the foyer, another mate asked my friend if he was going to the after-party.
"I'm not going. I need to feel if I have earnt it."
"You and Denzil about deserving it!"
"Until I'm a high-ranking officer in the Air Force and slept with the admiral's daughter, that's when I party!"
Like my friend, I do not reward myself with booze for graduating. It was a necessary part of life that had no way around it. A celebration should be for the end of something or a reward for hard work. We are not at the peaks of our careers or life. We're at the bottom of the mountain.
I'll give myself permission to indulge in these vices when I'm at the top. The financial security of my family, a collection of supercars, and travelling around the world with multiple income streams. This lifestyle, I envision, is a more monumental achievement than simply graduating. Label it as a superiority complex; yesterday was yesterday. In a hyper-competitive world, I need to be disciplined with how I reward myself and how I go about my work.
How mindset dictates your actions is all that matters. Ultra success demands focus on delayed gratification and doing the work when we do not feel like it. Sure, from time to time, indulge in pleasure. But if feeling happy is your number one goal when navigating life, be met with disappointment. Happiness will not be found in looking forward to Saturday nights to drink. Getting high on the weekend to cope with a job you hate. Or even laying waste in hedonism whilst in your university years.
Pleasure needs purpose. That is the balancing act we must play. It is better if the scale tilts towards a goal more than pleasure. But gratification can still exist with purpose. Still, pain is a constant, and now we have a choice in what we endure. We cannot run away from it. We either let life control what pain we experience, or we choose.
Do we experience the pain now; or later?
Delayed gratification encompasses this philosophy. Do we do the discomforting activity that will reap us rewards later, or feel the pleasure now and deal with the problems later? It depends on the question of how much you value your future self. You will become your future self. So, how much success do you want to attribute to your past self's ability to take the necessary actions to achieve success and your purpose? Or, as your present self, who will soon be your past self, will sabotage the future for your own gain?
What becomes the enemy of answering these questions is apathy. "It won't matter now." Are you sure? Ignorance omits the truth. Your actions will compound themselves. It's not easy switching tracks if you have been going down the same road for years. School no longer takes up your time. There are no excuses left. It'll be your own damn fault if you're found dead beside a ditch, metaphorically speaking. Start taking charge and caring about achieving the future you want.
Unless you're happy being complacent, it won't be long until you have doubts.
Looking On The Brightside
We've got control over our own lives now. I will admit freedom is fun in what you do with it. The feeling of being free is liberating. Instead of being in the confines of an external authority, we're the ones to choose it.
Freedom can be intoxicating unless we're the ones to create our own compromises. Nothing means nothing if we don't sacrifice anything to achieve something more significant. The option to destroy ourselves is there, always. It would not be true freedom if the choice of self-destruction did not exist.
School will be a unique chapter in our lives. Hopefully not the biggest. It will be remembered as an institution predicating authority. As sovereign individuals, the chance to make the most of our short time is now. Not everything about life is about work. There will be times to take a short break and have a breather.
That's the unique thing about humans; we can create and carve meaning to be satisfied by the feeling of fulfilment. Without freedom, we cannot be the masters of our own fate and walk the journey of self-actualisation.
But, as the majority party now, the real party for me is somewhere in Dubai, Singapore or Croatia. It'll happen by the time I'm 30. But I'm willing to finally reward myself for my hard work.
Good luck to you all, the graduating class of 2022.