Foxxie said
I know you likely hear this a lot, but teachers suck and high school can range from being an overall neutral pain in the ass to an absolute nightmare. I had two teachers, one in my freshman year and one when I was a senior, who were dead set on sinking my GPA. That first teacher succeeded in basically getting me kicked out of my first high school, but that's hardly important. I ended up doing alright in terms of getting into college and Edinburgh is a fantastic school, so don't fret over that. I know you'll make the best out of wherever you end up because you seem like the sort.I'll keep you posted on those essays of mine. I'm only a first year, so I'm not too sure they'll be winning much of anything, but I still feel honored to have them nominated in the first place. I chose English because it turns out I really do suck at all sciences except Chem and Orgo, and there's no way I want to devote my life to chemistry. I enjoy writing papers and reading too far into all manner of literature, so it seems like a good choice. It's not the most profitable major out there, but I figure a nice minor to go along with it would set me on the right track for the future. After all, my college has a fairly respectable English Department, so it just seemed like the best choice for me.
Yeah, I know quite a few people who've had a similar experience and came out of it okay. It's not the end of the world, its just... very frustrating. The kind of workload I've taken on this year is virtually unheard of, even in my statistics-conscious top-of-the-charts secondary school. I've freaking slaved over this stuff. I worked for 21 goddamn hours straight the other day. Ive volunteered around the school, and represented them at maths and debating competitions - hell, I won second best individual debater in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the middle of my mock exams. And if it seems I'm boasting, its because I sorta am - or at least, I wanna feel some pride before realising it was all effing pointless. It's all coming to nothing - I may as well just not have bothered, because the only universities asking for me to have done eff-all this year have now been closed off by this guy's total fucking cuntasticness. More than having devastating consequences for my future or anything, its just the frustration and bitterness that's getting to me. Disillusioned doesn't even begin to cover it. Anyway, this is just me bitching and venting, I know I'll be fine in the end. I'm actually considering not going to uni this year, and going to 'college' (different thing here; I think the American equivalent would be like 2-year community colleges) to do a few things that I always wished I'd had time to do but just couldn't fit in my schedule - try to use this as a thing freeing me of the sense of obligation to go to uni immediately. We'll see. Meh.
You never know - you might be bringing a fresh air. The potential exists for people who've all been in the same classes for years, studying the same things with the same professors, to end up all producing similarish things. It's happened this year in my English class - the change in our styles throughout the year has been noticeably convergent thanks to our teacher commenting on/editing/influencing our work with her own preferences and such. As a first year, you might just be different; they're clearly already impressed with the standard of your work, beyond that of many of your older and more experienced peers.
Certainly makes sense; if what you like and what you're proficient at line up, may as well go for it. What are you studying, may I ask, literature-wise? I always find it interesting to see what different unis/curriculums end up studying - if it's all the same stuff, as in some ways you'd expect (everyone studies Shakespeare, for example), or whether everyone studies different things.
