The Beginning of the End

WARNING: This post may cause you to reminisce and generally realise that maybe, just maybe high school wasn't as bad as all that.

So after my recent advance in years (that is turning 18) that I had been looking at as sort of the beginning of the end, I have now come to the point where I am ready to start to wrap up what has been a cracking 6 year period in my life. Some may say that school isn't cool, some may say that school is all about being a geek but I myself find that school has provided me with memories (an an education let’s not forget) that will last a lifetime. Now I feel that it is my duty after my last post to pull back in some of the humour that first few posts reeked of so I am going to try my best to make you laugh along the way as I try my hand at looking back over the last 6 years.

My first memory is of the induction days at school towards the end of primary 7. Now I thought I was the mutt’s nuts getting to go to the 'big school' and getting to do 'big school' stuff. As it turned out the 'big school' was a lot bigger than I could ever have imagined and so there I was, a wee boy in a building that felt like a continent. Primary school for me was where it was at for me after the 7 year stretch I did there. When I look back on what I was taught at primary, it really didn't prepare me in the slightest for what was to come. In fact when I think about it, after say primary 2 or 3, you didn't really learn that much. I still hear teachers at high school moaning about this matter saying that primary really doesn't prepare you for high school in the way that it should: it certainly never prepared me for peer groups, peer pressure or the periodical table. There was nothing in primary that I can say taught me about what high school was going to be like. When I got to high school I first thought that a bunsen burner would burn bunsen's (whatever they happened to be) and that a coping saw was some form looking at how we were dealing with the transition. So I would say that high school opened up a new world to us all - a world that was, before that closed to us.

I don't remember much of the first 4 years of high school if I am honest. If you read my 'Noughties' post then you will know that my memory is comparable to that of a common goldfish, even sometimes like the one that you just saw being flushed down the toilet after coming home from holiday to your pride and joy bobbing on the surface of the fish tank. As you can see that I had a childhood full of traumatic experiences like the dead fish(es) or the day that I broke my bugs bunny breakfast bowl. My childhood stank as a result of this trauma and so my memory took a massive hit. Ever wanted to know the reason for something and then come up with your own conclusion just to satisfy curiosity? Well I just blamed me lack of brain power on a cracked bowl so you can see that I am really clutching at straws here. The point that I am trying to make is that the first 4 years of high school were fun for me but never really a challenge. I never really had something to really get my teeth stuck into, nothing to excite me senses. It might even be said that I waltzed through these first 4 years with nothing to show except a few meaningless standard grades and a new perspective on girls. Now I mentioned back at the start that this post was supposed to be of fond memories of which there are plenty from these 4 years, but at the same time there are now that stand out. All the same I spent most of my waking life at school and not to enjoy it would have had a catastrophic effect on me, so I got on with it and in the end had a ball.

Now the last couple of years have been anything but uneventful. In that time I have discovered myself as a person, lost bad friends and made brilliant ones, learned that relationships can often kick you in the proverbial nuts sometimes and of course I have become smarter along the way as well. I like how I left the most important one until last but then again my prioritising skills have never been one of my best traits. So the last couple yours have been great fun for me. Not only am I now in a position to move onto higher education but I am also having the time of my life. Some may say that they wouldn't touch my lifestyle of studying, reading and the occasional heavy drinking session with a barge pole but those people are entitled to their own opinion and in most cases can take that barge pole place it somewhere uncomfortable. What high school has taught me is that there are a lot of different types of people in the world and yes I do believe that I can make such an assumption because at the end of the day, the people that I have been around for 6 years are the adults of tomorrow. I've learnt that you don't have to be like everyone, you don't have to make everyone laugh but as long as there is always someone there that you can trust then you know there is someone like you. There are people that I have come across in my high school career that I would not give the time of day to but then again there are people that I want to stay in contact with for the rest of my life. Being a high school student has let me sample different lifestyles and I know that I have chosen the best one for me.

Lastly I'm going to have a quick cathartic explosion about my last year at high school. Being a senior student has had its advantages and, to a lesser extent, its disadvantages as well. I have gained more confidence this year although I still have a tendency to turn red in certain situations (those of you who have seen this now have permission to laugh) but I would say that I don't do it as much anymore. I have also seen that there is a common ground between the older students and the teachers this year which has been a nice and highly enjoyable privilege this year. There of course is still the odd teacher that will speak to you as if they have just scraped you off their shoe but they are in the minority as far as my experiences have seen. The downsides to this year? Well they have actually been few and far between. I would say that the worst part of this year has been toilet duty where I will stand for 20 minutes outside the toilets where everyone that goes in will give me a dirty look; the kind of look that says "are you a pervert or do you just like the smell?". This hasn't been a highlight of the year for me really although I will look back on it one day and laugh at how wearing a prefect badge entitled me to stalk the toilets at break time without looking like a complete wally. I mean if I didn't have the badge and still did it then what would people say? But as I said the bad moments this year have been few and far between but even they will not be forgotten in a hurry.

So what has school meant to me overall? Well I would say that I now know what a bunsen burner is for and that no matter how much I frown, I will never put the fear of god into people going to the toilet. But seriously I haven’t even touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of memories and good things that I have taken from this experience. There have been so many things that I have had the privilege to do and I will always look back on this time very fondly. Now all I have left is a few months there and you know, it might just be a place that I am going to end up missing - everyone get their tissues out (and lets block the toilets!!!) - not on my watch.

Thanks again for reading and I hope that you are now thinking back to your time at the place that we all claim to hate but really love - high school.

Respect the Buddha

Whilst wondering what to write my next post about I was truly stumped this time. I contemplated devising another theory based on a food product that I like but felt that this may alienate those of you who have taken to reading this blog. I suppose there is the possibilty to come up with something along those lines in the future because just the other day I did begin to wonder if the quality of a good dunking biscuit could be linked in some ways to human qualities but I am not quite sure how that one is going to work out. What's more is that I thought about this time writing something a bit different rather than about cheese or trying to maim myself. So I was sitting reading my book (A Little History of the World by Ernst Gombrich) when I realised that I had the topic right in front of me. Now this book is one that was written about 60 years ago in German for children. It was supposed to be easy for them to read whilst also providing them with a brief yet interesting look at the history of the world. It has since been translated into many languages and has become a classic not just for children. Now it was when I was reading the chapter that was talking about the teachings of Buddha that I was inspired to write this post. I will urge you to read on because I believe that this is one of the most interesting things that you are likely to think about this side of tomorrow.

I am going to give you a little bit of background information about the Buddha which is something that I never really knew about before reading this book. The Buddha, or Gautama Buddha, was born into a weathly family where he was going to grow up to be a prince. He was kept in his palace by his father and was never exposed to any ill, disabled or old people. This meant that he was never exposed to the terrible world that lay outside of his life of luxury. But one day curiosity got the better of him and he went out in a carriage to see for himself what was apparently to bad for him to see. He was obviously shocked with what he saw when he came across illness and beggars in the street but he took it all in and realised what it all meant. To cut everything a bit shorter as this story has many intricate details in it that I personally enjoy reading about but you yourself might not be so much, he became a hermit and went to live in the hills where he would sit under a tree and contemplate life, trying to find the meaning of everything and a way to achieve happiness. I am now going to quote a passage from this amazing book for you:

"The idea that came to him, his great Enlightenment, the solution to human suffering was this: if we want to avoid suffering, we must start with ourselves, because all suffering comes from our own desires. Think of it like this. If you are sad because you can't have something you want - maybe a book or a toy - you can do one of two things: you can do your best to get it, or you can stop wanting it. Either way, if you succeed, you won't be sad any more. This is what the Buddha taught. If we can stop ourselves wanting all the beautiful and pleasant things in life, and can learn to control our greed for happyness, comfort, recognition and affection, we shan't feel sad any more when, as so often happens, we fail to get what we want. He who ceases to wish for anything ceases to feel sad. If the appetite goes, the pain goes with it"

I must point out that I am not a religious person in any way really but at the same time nor I am against any religions either. I would imagine that if someone reading this had strong beliefs about another religion then they would completely disagree with everything that I have said but personally I am willing to read about anything like this and approach it with an open, fair mind. What I have just quoted is a paragraph that I read 3 or 4 times when I first read this chapter. It makes so much sense that I couldn't stop myself from reading it. There are very few times when I will appreciate something so much that I will go back and read it over again but this paragraph (along with many others in this book I must add) really caught my imagination.

I am also beginning to appreciate just how hard such a thing is to achieve. For example I am sitting in front of a laptop that I wanted, taking for granted material items that fill my bed room (along with some rather unsavory dirty clothes that I can't bring myself to move). Our lives are filled with these things that are there to make us feel good about ourselves. Not for a second am I saying that we should give up all of this stuff because that would be going to the extremes of this concept but what I am saying is that we should appreciate everything that we have and not take things for granted.

I know that those of you who have read my previous posts will have expected me to written a few bad jokes in this post coupled with a whole load of self deprecating satire but I felt the need to step away from that for a change. I mean I could have written about how I always thought that the Buddha was a fat man on a seat (which was actaully the depiction of him by a small ornament in the RE class rooms at school) but I thought that if I was going to be making a serious point about what he believed then it was better not to mock his weight. All I ask of you is that you scroll back up to the passage from the book and read it again, maybe changing example of toys and books to alcohol and clothes or something more relevant like that. I'm sure that you'll agree with me that it is something worth thinking about once in a while when you are feeling angry about not being able to afford something or not getting what you wanted for dinner. Life goes on as they say and I am now beginning to realise that there is a way to help it on its way when things get a bit frustrating.

Thanks for reading again guys.

(Quote and information from A Little History of the World by E.H Gombrich - English Translation 2005 Published by Yale University Press)