I have never been so excited for anything more in my entire life than leaving high school. Entering the 'real world' after 13 odd years of the same. god. damn. routine to some may be a scary new reality, but to me it's something I've been ready for, for longer than I can explain. There comes a point in your life when you know your only enduring something instead of benefiting or learning from it, and that is how I now feel about high school. I've done the science thing, the math thing, neither of which are my forte. I've learned how to write a acceptable essay and how to give an achievable speech. I've learned how to play almost every sport there is to play in New Zealand, or at least attempted. I've done the basics. But the best thing I ever did at high school? Take social studies. Without this subject, school life would be unbearable. Never have I ever come across anything I am so passionate and curious about in my entire life. The story of Malala the young girl who was shot by the Taliban because she stood up for education changed my soul in the way I feel compassion. Learning about the culture of North Korea and understanding their beliefs and devotion to their leader. Learning about the 100 day Rwandan Genocide which has taught me what it's like to truly feel sadness for another human being. This subject makes me FEEL. It brings me to emotion, it has made me want to cry. It's beautiful and that's why I love it. I have a passion for it. I care about what goes on in the world, the gritty real shit that the media doesn't tell us. The fact that so much conflict is occurring in Africa that I would never have been aware of without being informed in this subject, or that over 5 million people were killed in Africa after the genocide, had this been in Europe, we'd know it as WW3. Crazy right. Says a lot about our world. So when I leave high school in a years time I will leave with knowledge that I could not have learnt in any other subject; something that no math class could ever teach me, no media class, no class. And that's compassion. That's curiousity. That's realism. Humanity. And these are the greatest skills you can develop as a human being.
