by J.Ash
I thought it was a mistake to say that we are too far behind the standards of America’s high schools. So what if we called ourselves secondary school seniors?
I started reading teen novels since I wasn’t even a teen yet. So I was quite exposed to what is actually happening in the high schools of other countries. Betrayals, backstabs, cheatings, and all those inevitable gossips and scandals and even sex were all to be found in those stories. Not to mention more of prejudice and discrimination on the subjects of your looks, appearance, exam results, racism, sexism among others. That had made the life in high school looks if not attractive, will be very adventurous indeed. Almost all the time, I pictured myself in a high school, where we can wear the coolest garments in town if we can afford, and bring along the cell phones, the cigars and we get to go cutting the classes everyday whenever we want to. And romance, sex and cafeteria certainly added spices to make life in high school very interesting.
Looking back at our own secondary school, it looks like we never had anything. And we actually had to wear the same uniform for 5 days a week and basically, for 5 long years. Unless of course you switched from a normal student into a prefect or perhaps a librarian, you will probably wear something else that would be equally boring as well. Our teachers were probably those that had been fired by every other school in the world, and they never liked anything we wanted or we even wished for. What’s worst is that, every morning we still had to queue up to buy a plate of breakfast like little kids in goddamn prep schools!
But now, if we really look inside to our real secondary school life, things are certainly becoming more and more into ‘high-school-ish’. Of course, we still had to wear back the uniforms, and never to stay close to the opposite sex (in some schools teachers definitely discouraged everyone) and still queue up in a chaotic canteen, because Malaysia is still a developing country, that is still under control of a not so sensible and still ‘unopened’ government, who never wanted us to be out of their short-sighted vision.
But other than that, we are almost the same as what high school is about. Yes, there are rules that cell phones ain’t allowed in school, but so what? Nobody cares and eventually 1 out of 3 in among students brought their phones everyday and not even a teacher had the guts to really do a spot check. And every time I went to the toilet, I would always smell the strong cigarette smell and often see some leftovers on the floor. So much for punishing students.
The psychological facts of the students in secondary school are—their thinking and their mind are absolutely the same facet with those in high school. There’s no deny that all those racism and sexism appeared in every school here, because as a multi-racial country, the fair-skinned and the olive-skinned were all mixed up together in a community. And the most of all—the students loved to talk about sex and fashion.
It is inevitable that sex and fashion is the most concerned topics of all, as one not just cared about their looks they also wanted everyone to feel attracted to them. Who said that there’s no reigning queens here? And not to mention all those cliques that are formed, where a clique became a place or a small little community where a group of selfish peoples talk and critic about others and certainly feels that they are simply the superiors compared to others.
Lately, my class had been playing Survivor, a game that follows the tradition of the reality TV show about voting people off and see who will be the winner. It is true that the game Survivor is actually a good example of showing that discrimination always exists in every corner. Especially when the game comes into a stage where they are not just voting out the people they dislike, they eventually vote people that they hate! The group of players would always vote the ones that they never liked, and when the results came, they will let the ‘loser’ into a pit of shame. Eventually, most of them are indeed satisfied and happy indeed.
Of course, some harmless titles such as The Worst Fashion or the Most Silly are truly a bit of crazy fun, as nobody really feels shame to become the title of the Silliest Person Alive, unless of course you are someone that cannot really accept the title. But mostly players of the game are those that are quite confident about themselves.
Unfortunately, some very hazardous ones like The People that We Hate the Most or the Most Selfish Person, or even the Most Disgusting Person is truly harmful. It would never be harmful if the players vote it without the person in the game, but it will prove to be very terrible if the ‘winner’ is eventually part of the players. This act, this titles definitely can make someone feeling really depressed and sad, especially those living their daily school life among friends whom he or she thought that are very sincere to him, until the day came when he or she saw her name on the ‘chopping board’, and found out that actually all of his friends around him are just great actors with exceptional skills.
The players, of course, are truly having their own fun, thinking that they are the top of the world, the ones that can simply judge on everyone without even thinking well enough, and feeling that they are truly the superiors, that are actually smarter and better looking and definitely less disgusting as their lesser counterparts in their class.
What will be the result of such a game? The ‘winners’ of these titles will feel very uncomfortable living in the class among insincere friends who took no notice of them. This will be the first step into a chain reaction that simply causes the backstabs and the riots. While the ‘winners’ are suffering, the ‘panel jury’ will of course think that they are the coolest persons in the world, until one day, they will only learn that their minds are actually so short-sighted, as they finally found out that everyone actually hates them except themselves, and in some cases, hating is among the clique itself.
I’m actually one of the ‘winners’ of those titles, and eventually I felt that it’s not a very deep-throat punch on my face. I mean, almost half of the players are actually the ones that I disliked and denied, so I don’t quite mind about what they really think about me. So what? They thought they represent the whole class. Actually, they are only just a bunch of know-nothing birdbrains that simply thought themselves as the coolest group. Actually, those who followed all my writings for long will knew only too well about who I’m truly talking about. Those bitches and one son of a bitch are those culprits that tried to ruin my life. But I told myself, they are just some blocking pebbles on my path, and do you know what I will do? In order to live along, I will step on those blocking pebbles, and live on with my life.
Do you guys really understand? Even though they would not be squashed by me someday in this secondary school life yet they might be squashed by other cliques someday when they started working!
Isn’t that scenario above is something recognizable that you can actually find in teen movies like Mean Girls? The Lindsay Lohan movie definitely showed you the insights of the dramatic life in high school especially that involves some girl fights and teen queens. Eventually, who can deny that our innocent-looking secondary school is slowly switching side to the dazzling high schools? Don’t you think that besides all those fancy clothes and cafeterias, we are getting what high school life has?
As we finally go near to what my nutshell is about, life in secondary school is very tough. Especially those that isn’t geeks or nerds but is also not the popular ones in school! Because nerds don’t really think about these stuffs. They are not even enjoying their school life. All they cared about is themselves and their own life and never truly extend themselves to others. Meanwhile, popular peoples of course get the most attention and get the best services and the unofficial ‘promotions’ given by teachers if they are smart. The average group, like what I’m considered in, does not want to live their school life as boring as the geeks do, but despite the fact that they are trying to climb themselves to stardom or popularity, they are always pushed down by the selfish popular ones. Of course, they are some popular persons that are also kind-hearted and deserves his or her popularity, but others simply just don’t want us to be into their category because they are simply afraid that they will lose all their attention maybe you are smarter, more intelligent, more fashionable, better looking or you have the true sense of art and style that they did not achieve. So…there are only three words to stand for these selfish groups of people: THEY ARE JEALOUS.
So don’t feel down whenever you are ‘bullied’ by these peoples. Simply just ignore them, and live your life like what you had planned. Of course if you really need help or some further discussions or consults, you can talk to me in my guestbook. Or if you are not the nice but the naughty, simply backstab them. I even had the feeling to actually massacre them with a chainsaw. After all, let them feel what pain really means. Let them suffer. They deserve it, don’t they?
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