Don't Believe Everything You Think

I'm sure I'll remember what I wanted to write about eventually, but for now, let's talk about exams.

They annoy me. Partly because almost all my friends are currently in the throes of exam season, and are resultantly busy and tired and stressed. But also in a broader sense. Such an inaccurate, traumatic method of judging and separating people. Not to mention, with current trends in moderation, increasingly useless as the bar continues to be dropped. So much for standards.

One of my pet peeves is the onus placed on people to succeed in exams, gain qualifications, go to university, etc. Complete and utter bollocks. Certainly, if you want to be a doctor, or a microbiologist, teacher, or any other profession that explicitly requires a university diploma, go for it. But why all the stress and angst? Especially if what would really make you happy is a job completely unrelated to any of the academic qualifications you're accruing.

I wanted to leave school after O-levels; ended up making a deal with the parents, which involved my staying on until I'd done A-levels.

I pretty much left home as soon as I'd finished my exams. And guess what? In nearly five years since, not one person or prospective employer has asked about my exams. No one gives a flying duck (sic) that I got the highest attainable grade in all my subjects up to AS level, the best IGCSE English results in the country, distinctions in my music grades, or an ABB for A-level in Physics, Pure Maths and Biology, despite not doing any coursework (30% of the grade, hence the B's). Heck, I don't even know where the damn certificates are any more. Useless bits of paper.

Why lose so much sleep over something that means so little? Chillax and enjoy.

Bingo! Brain has come back with what I was supposed to be rambling about, during a quasi-random Facebook conversation with Frau Steeple (who really shouldn't be so entertainingly cruel towards Herr Schnick):

I was never one of the "cool" gang in school. Quite the opposite. I was most certainly one of the misfits, the strange fringe groups. I daresay I still am, being rather odd, and prone to random whims and personality jumps.

Some of my friends only fit in certain groups; they are uncomfortable if they are ever in another social circle. I regularly interact with people from so many opposing social factions, it's like a bad comedy. But I prefer it that way. My taste in people is like my taste in music; very eclectic.

Meh.