All Posts Tagged With: "highschool"

No more ‘uniformity’

There are lots of reasons why university is a million times better than high school. Never mind all the obvious ones, like the fact that the courses are way more interesting, or that you have more control over your marks. When I started my first year of university, a nice bonus that I didn’t expect: you don’t have to worry about what you’re wearing.

In high school, everyone wears a uniform. Sure, there are a couple variations of this “uniform.” And certain styles go in and out of popularity. But the High School Uniform is partly why distinguishing between two 15-year-olds is more difficult than making a Jurassic Park 4 with an original plot. Meaning, something that doesn’t involve a bunch of archaeologists wandering around a tropical island and getting eaten one by one, except for the main character wearing a fedora.

That’s why it’s kind of ironic when high school students get in an uproar about actual school uniforms. They’re all wearing the same thing, anyway.

Some people don’t wear the uniform, sometimes because they’re truly individuals, and sometimes because they’re completely oblivious and need their older sister to point out why wearing that sweater and those pants is a really, really bad idea.

University is completely different. When you’re sitting in a lecture hall with hundreds of students, nobody is paying any attention to you.

Or what you’re wearing.

-Photo courtesy of Jim.landover3

Setting foot on campus… before September

When I left my chemistry lab exam last April, I thought the next time I’d be on Waterloo’s campus would be this September. Starting my second year. But last week, when I set foot on campus for the first time in over two months, I thought I was doing something blasphemous.

Going to school? During the summer? Even though I’d only be there for 10 minutes to hand in some forms, it felt like I was performing some obscene act. School and summer just don’t mesh.

I had the same expectations of visiting Waterloo’s campus during summer vacation as I would visiting my old high school. That it would be depressing. A reminder of past anxieties and worries. I was sure the whole visit would just be something to endure.

But as I walked around campus, seven weeks early, I realized something that surprised me.

I’ve missed being on campus.

Now I walk uphill both ways

Ever since I finished high school I’ve been slowly transforming into an old person.

I’ve been out of the public school system for just over a year now. Suddenly I’m hearing myself saying things to my brothers that my parents used to say to me.

“Don’t put your shoes on like that. You’ll ruin the heel.”

“Put a hat on. Do you want to have a heat stroke?”

“Stop crossing your eyes or you’ll weaken the muscles.”

I can’t sleep in past 8:00. When I catch Michael or David watching TV, I tell them to go outside and enjoy the sunshine. I can no longer pronounce words like ‘Bionicle.’ I notice birds when they chirp outside my bedroom window. I sometimes even watch them for a few seconds.

And I have to resist the urge to tuck my shirt into my pants.

I’ve developed a taste for weird foods. Like cold boiled eggs. And when I eat pancakes, I use chunky garlic syrup.

I swear, even my eyesight has diminished. I can’t make complete eye contact with people. I have a soft, wandering focus.

And I’ve started listening to the CBC.

-photo courtesy of JonDissed

I worried that I would somehow end up drinking coffee. And enjoy it.

It’s hard to believe that my first year of university is almost over.

Five of my courses are finished. I don’t have any more labs or tutorials. Only two more exams sit between me and summer vacation.

I still remember how I felt last summer when I was leaving high school forever and heading toward university. Before I started my first semester in September, there were all the Big Fears.

Like worrying that university courses would be impossibly difficult. Or that university physics would be 10 times worse than grade 12 physics. Or that after becoming a university student, I would somehow end up drinking coffee. And enjoy it.

Looking back, there wasn’t any reason to be scared of university.

Okay, come to think of it, those last two fears did come true.

There were also the Stupid Little Fears. Like worrying that I would get lost on the gigantic campus (which did happen). Or that when I would sit down to write my first-ever university mid-term, I would realize in a moment of horror that I was screwed: my out-dated high school studying habits would have to adapt if I wanted to get good marks.

Actually, that also happened.

The Big Fears turned out to be No Big Deal. University courses aren’t impossibly difficult. If you do the readings and take good notes, you’ll do fine. As for the Little Stupid Fears, well, most of them are true.

As someone who has absolutely no sense of direction, the University of Waterloo campus was like a labyrinth of identical-looking buildings. With too many people riding bicycles.

And your study habits from high school do need to evolve.

But you get past those Stupid Little Fears within a week. I don’t get lost on my way to lectures anymore. And after writing two batches of mid-terms and final exams, my high school study habits have adapted.

I just try not to think about that first chemistry test too much.

- photo courtesy of waferboard

It was 25 below zero in Kitchener last week. If I was still in high school, it would have meant an Unofficial Snow Day: one of those days when it’s just too cold to stand at the bus stop. It’s a dream of every high school student. You walk into the kitchen one morning and [...]

It was 25 below zero in Kitchener last week. If I was still in high school, it would have meant an Unofficial Snow Day: one of those days when it’s just too cold to stand at the bus stop.

It’s a dream of every high school student. You walk into the kitchen one morning and your parents say, “School? Nah. Why not just take the day off?”

If that had ever happened, I would have been back in bed asleep even before their sentence was complete, not bothering to stop and wonder about the likelihood of both parents having had a mini-stroke at the same time. But in university, it’s suddenly not my life mission to miss as much school as possible.

It’s a change that I didn’t expect.

Even in uni, I’ll still need a signed note from my parents to skip class

One of the biggest differences between high school and university is the death of permission forms.

Back in high school, if a teacher wanted to take their class on a field trip to the downstairs broom closet, everyone’s parents had to sign a permission form first. Usually along the lines of, “If my child sprains their ankle, breaks their arm, has their feelings hurt, or sustains an injury to their epidermal layer after excessive scratching of their nose, I promise not to sue the school board.”

But in university? If one of my professors wanted to take the class on a field trip to the rim of an active volcano, where poisonous sulfur dioxide gases and carbon monoxide fumes had genetically mutated nearby animal life into vicious raptors, there wouldn’t be any need for permissions forms.

Mind you, if we were accompanied by a group of archaeologists, a couple of vulnerable children, and a disposable crew member or two, we wouldn’t be on a field trip anymore. We’d be in Jurassic Park 4.

After the Great Permission Form Extinction of Post Secondary School, I figured that university students would never have to ask their parents to sign a piece of paper again. But after reading through my chemistry class’s course information booklet, I realized that I was completely wrong. Attending the funeral of a family member is one of the valid reasons for missing a term test. But first, students have to provide a note from their parents.

This seems wrong on so many levels. One of the things that I’ve been enjoying the most about university is the fact that everyone seems to treat students with the same level of respect that they’d give an adult. Suddenly requiring a signed note from someone’s parents kind of seems like a step back towards high school.

Not to mention, if someone is actually willing to tempt fate and pretend that a family member has died, asking their roommate to forge a note probably wouldn’t nag their conscience too much.

Parent-teacher interviews. If you break it down into three separate words, its meaningless. But when they’re all lined up in a row next to each other in the same sentence, these three words result in having all the people with the most power over your life together. In the same room. Talking about you. And [...]

Parent-teacher interviews. If you break it down into three separate words, its meaningless. But when they’re all lined up in a row next to each other in the same sentence, these three words result in having all the people with the most power over your life together. In the same room. Talking about you. And after last week, it’ll never happen again. It’s hard to believe that there are only 10 weeks of high school left.

scott.dobson.mitchell@gmail.com