schoolI've been reading some blogs from Australia, by girls (and by a few boys) who are doing Year 12 this year or who did Year 12 last year.
That can be a horrible time in one's life. You're 17 or 18, at that in-between age when you are physically and emotionally close to being an adult, when you long for independence but when you do not have the necessary self-sufficiency to be independent. You are still at school, dependent on parents (or parent) and facing those final exams which can determine what you will do for the rest of your life.
At the end of the year, there will be glittering prizes for a few and entry to a prized university course (arts/law, commerce/law ... you know the sort of thing), disappointment for many and a deep sense of defeat and failure for some. In Australia, Year 12 has been turned into a make or break year.
Yuk! My Year 12 was horrible. I have absolutely no idea how I got through it. I have even less idea how I got the TER that I did (not brilliant, but enough to get me into Arts at Melbourne) - it was a tribute to my teachers and a return on the school fees which my father paid.
As if the pressures of getting a good result and a high TER score aren't enough, there are other complications; for example, relationships with parents and friends, boys, self appearance, self worth, self identity etc. 16/17 is too young for some of that stuff. When I was at school, there were a couple of girls in my Year 12 class who did not turn 17 until December of that year, after they had finished their final exams. In the same class, there were some girls who, because of overseas travel or student exchange programs, turned 18 at the beginning of year 12; they were nearly 2 years older than the youngest girls. The 18 year old girls were more mature and more focused on the outcomes of that year. I turned 17 in the second half of my Year 12 and there were too many distractions in my life at that time.
I hate it when people say that school days were the happiest days of their lives. They obviously didn't do Year 12 the way it is organised in Australia today, or they have optimistically selective memories - or they need to get a life.
