Highschool is a Liar Liar Pants on Fire.

I went through elementary school figuring that High School held a lot of my burning questions. What will I be like when I'm an adult? What kind of car will I drive? What sort of friends will I have? Will I have lots? What will I be when I grow up? What will I look like?

I guess that's pretty naive but I think it's something that most kids seem to believe will be opened up for them upon entering the fortress like building of High School. 

When one starts High School, you step into a world completely set apart from your expectations. You don't  typically find a preformed group of aggressively bubble gum chewing hair twirling blonde bitches. There aren't letter jacket wearing tobacco chewing beefy jocks waiting to flush your hair in the toilet. That group of offbeat colourful oddballs you might've hoped to join? (I mean, they have the best storylines in all the tv shows and movies.) They don't really exist.

I mean, yeah, that stuff does happen but not in such a clearly defined and segregated way. 

All that moaning aside, because that isn't really what I wanted to moan about, High School just didn't prepare me, or really anyone I know, for the reality of life. And that reality is anything goes. 

This formula made me miserable. I didn't really fit into any of it and I couldn't see a way I could stuff myself into it. I guess I gave up on it because I felt it was a lost cause. I started to obsess about just getting through the high school years and getting into university. High school told me that that was impossible unless you were in every extra curricular activity and were at least on the honour roll for every report card. Teachers told me to aim lower.

I had this crazy dream that I'd get into art school, learn a skill set and that would equal a path into my chosen field, which was photography. That's a whole other blog post.

I guess this is on my mind a lot because so many people I know have degrees, they put the time in at university, some even flew through it with stunning grades. But the common theme I found was that hardly a one of them seem to be any more set for a fulfilling career than I am. So many fall into the mundane and stay there because there just doesn't seem to be anything else and then the rest of life falls down around you (settling down, pregnancy, family, illness, disability, loss) and you just do what you can.

Teachers are adults. They know all of this but they still don't tell us. CAPP (career and personal planning) class can kiss my hiney because it's the most fraudulent class there is. Very few 16 year olds know exactly what they want. Very few 25 year olds know what they want. I would hazard to say that there's no age limit on that. CAPP taught me that if I went to university, did well, I would be welcomed into the ranks of my chosen field. My very aptitude in some respects practically guaranteed it.

This is what CAPP should have been about.

There are no guarantees. I know people that didn't even finish high school and they're in jobs that make them very happy. I know people that failed high school and they will probably work in retail or customer service till they retire. I know people that have 800 degrees and they're still not doing what they want. I know people who excelled in the school system, secondary and post secondary, and they are doing really really well.

I suppose there isn't a right answer. I suppose you don't always know what you want or where life will take you. I just think the bubble needs to be popped and that the skill sets taught to young adults need to focus less on getting through the system and more on being an individual capable of taking their individual choices and seeing them through.

I also think it wouldn't hurt for there to be some learning focused on whether University is worth the life long ball and chain of student debt just for the sake of Taking The Next Logical Step.

Learning is a precious gift, but institutions aren't the only place it's possible to learn anything worthwhile no matter what they tell you.