I'm reaching my level of tolerance with OWCH. Each day pushes me just a little farther away from their ideals. Great time to realize this, eh? Only two weeks left and I've realized that this year is probably the most miserable I've ever existed through.
We travel up to twenty miles to sit in a room and be told that we're better than everyone else because we're sitting in that room.-My small diatribe to Yulle and Madame this morning.
It disgusts me. The level of academic, and sometimes personal, snobbery we have to deal with is on an unbelievable level. At every function, billboard, letterhead, t-shirt, envelope, coffee cup (with the exception of OBD's), website, desktop, and classroom "The #1 School in the State" is blazoned. There are times where I believe those hired to attain a certain level of entertainment don't get paid unless they mention it at least three times within the duration.
I'm tired to being lied to.
In the 2003 brochure (the very same one every sophomore recieved) the last lines of the first paragraph are: "...making your high school years really count towards your goals...your dreams...your right to a truly individual path in life."
Individual path, right? No. Your first year there is dictated by their standards and beliefs on what you should be doing. Every minute alotted is accounted for. Spent under the heavy scrutiny of administrators "with your best interests in mind." Total freedom, I tell you.
"I like the small school atmosphere..." Of course you do. Every quote, every breath, every picture is scripted to the most minute detail. From looking at the brochure: you can infer that everyone wears pastels, excels in everything they do, saves puppies from oncoming cars, help old ladies cross the street, and never stops extolling the greatness that is OWCH.
You'll never see a majority of the students that attend this school in the brochure. Why? They don't fit the criteria. They don't have their lips firmly pressed to the asses of all the administrators.
Use of a GPA as a bondage tool is not wise.
For years, we've been the highest in our classes. We've slept through semester after semester. Never really having to stretch ourselves to fill the demands of high school. Or any other school. So, it's only sensible that we should struggle a bit to feel what it means to be "normal". That's what this school is there for. To make us feel inadequate. Normal. Mediocre.
That's why they give us a class with a teacher who's only experience is with 1st graders. Bore us out of our minds to prove that we're no better than anyone else.
Never take candy from strangers.
One of the most enticing aspects of the school is the use of a laptop. It's like dangling a bauble in front of a magpie. It's nothing much really. A box filled with wires and an internet connection. What they don't tell you is the stipulations on it. That's what you get sometime in your first month. They're virtually useless. 4gb of hard drive space free from the Os. Keys that fall off at the slightest rough touch. And more spyware than the Coa has even thought of.
I'm tired of being patronized.
Everytime you try to talk to any of the admins, all you get is looked down upon. The same speech four or five times over. The same excuses. The same dismissal. Headmistress is the worst of them all. Just this morning we had a run in with her.
Headmistress: You signed a participatory slip in the beginning of the year. We shouldn't have this problem.
Me: I never signed anything.
Headmistress: If it has your name attached to it, we assume that you signed it.
Then again at the end of the day.
Vegan: Oh, you have to realize that [Bi-polar] is the good guy here...
Headmistress: No one is the good guy. You have your rights. He has his. The state mandates that we allow you to take an alternative assignment. He was just doing his job as a teacher. Did you mention that you were opposed to dissecting plants?
Vegan: No. I did not.
She didn't even bother to listen to our account of what happend. According to her, it didn't matter. We weren't in class, therefore we were in the wrong. It's been like this since the beginning and will remain that way until the end. There is nothing we can do. There is nothing we can say.
I'm tired of compromise.
To quote Fashion Sense's shoes: Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything.
I seem to have fallen and be unable to get up. I can't go back. Going forward is a distant dream. It's my name on the papers but my hand was elsewhere.
From what I've heard, being a junior is much easier. I've also heard that they steal your soul and force you to do naughty things to animals. But who am I to complain?