Long time, no Blog.
It's been a busy week, however it's seemed to be one of those weeks where I have done so much yet managed to achieve so little. Do other people get this? I am exhausted this week and it all seems as though it's all ahead of me to do.
My life over the last week can be broken down into two things: Work and Work.
I'll start with Work. It seems that no matter how hard I try my academic life just will not let up. I am reminded almost everyday, by at least one of my teachers, that there is only nine weeks left of my schooling life. On top of this I am also reminded that there are only two outcomes at the end of those nine weeks: Failure or Success. Failure of course means no university and no basic education. I will not get a job which will of course cause me to take up drugs, get someone pregnant and effectively ruin my life. Success on the other hand appears to mean paradise. Teachers make it sound like getting good A-Level grades will cause the heavens to open and paradise and happiness to reign down on us all for eternity. BULLSHIT.
It seems that, in the eyes of the Sixth Form academic staff of this world, these are the only paths which we as students can take and that these outcomes are destined for all students. Surely this can't be the best way to encourage your students to do well during their last few months at school. What about those of us who are unlikely to get the top grades and be opened unto the paradisiacal gates of life? Surely teachers, who have been doing this for quite some time, could take a more positive approach to their graduating (or flunking as the case may be) students. I am a firm believer that positive reinforcement is a far greater weapon than destructive fear mongering and this must apply to students. If you tell someone that they can do something, in combination with hard work, then they are more likely to feel that they can and work towards achieving that goal; however if you tell people that their lives will be ruined unless the learn how to do something, then I guarantee you'll have less success. Teachers want us to succeed but sometimes they are fairly clueless as to the best way to get us there.
This brings me onto my second topic of the week: Work.
I have been looking for a new job for months now. Much longer than I care to have been and I clearly have not been successful so far. There are all sorts of reason for this, my education restricting the hours I can work, travelling distances and the just extreme lack of jobs for people my age in Maidenhead; but one thing that has really prevented me from getting jobs and annoys the hell out of me is that ever elusive attribute for people my age: Experience. It seems that with the economic situation (once again something we're constantly reminded of by teachers), that employers are now able to pick and choose who they hire. The lack of higher paying jobs that require qualifications is forcing more and more people to settle for the lower paying jobs that students such as myself crave in order to pay for holidays, new clothes and our weekend drinking habits. As a result employers are now asking for experienced workers for jobs that would previously not have requested it. Yet they never seem to offer a way for us to gain this experience.
Now that all the jobs for us younger, inexperienced people are gone, the world is beginning to create a generation of people who are just completely inexperienced. We students used to rely on the weekend bar jobs, the dishwasher jobs and the waiter positions to beef up our CV's so we don't look like worthless idiots when we come out of uni. Now, however, we are once again being told that we are not good enough and that a 30 year old ex-banker can pour a beer much better than we can. When will the world tell us that we can do something and that even if we screw up our lives will be enjoyable???
It seems that Work and Work are really not positive aspects of a young person's life these days. We've inherited a world of "put up or shut up" and it seems that I'm now at that point in life we're I'm expected to do both - "Shut up" and do some work so you can "put up" your grades to a level that will "shut up" your employer so he/she will give you a decent job that "puts you up" in the world.
Well now it really is time for me to shut up and put up this post.
On another note I have a job interview tomorrow. Wish me luck. I'd also like to shout out to Suzy who's joyful 18th birthday I will unfortunately miss tomorrow. Happy Birthday Suzy.
Till next time......
God you're a laugh JB!
ReplyDeleteThe faster I go, the behinder I get. I know that feeling so well. It happens when something is dragging me back, and there is something dragging you back. But if it's someone else who's doing that to you, then you're fucked, aren't you?
The good news is that, if it's you who's doing it to you, then you can free yourself.
If your teachers don't live up to your expectations, so what? No-one can give you what they don't have: if they don't have it for you, then you're going to have to give it to yourself -- or you can sit there and keep on feeling frustrated and dissatisfied. It's up to you.
What do you want? That is, for some people, the hardest question to answer. They know what they DON'T want, and that's what they focus on, and that's what they get. So, what DO you want? What do you need to get out of the way so that life can deliver it to you?
Do you want somebody to tell you you have the talent? I can do that. You have the talent. Are you looking for the desire and motivation? You have it. It's hidden underneath the pure energy of your frustration. Look under there. Do you want somebody to tell you your life is not going to be ruined or wasted? It's not going to be ruined or wasted --- not without your permission anyway.
As a former employer, I can let you in on a secret about the "Experience" they're looking for. It's not so much what or how much you have done, but HOW you have done what you've done.
Now, tomorrow. Good luck. If you want a reference, tell them to ring me. And you can help yourself, too. Your frustration and disappointment are understandable, but don't take them with you. Leave them at home. Take your willingness and eagerness along instead.
This is the time of your life when you sow seeds and fertilise the rest of your life. Harvest time will come, but not just now. This is when you learn to enjoy the lessons for their own sake. If you cannot enjoy and find the juice in this Now, you'll never enjoy any other Now that follows this one.
And keep that delicious sense of humour. That alone will get you through.
I'll be rooting for you tomorrow.
I know you are worth it.
Love Grandad.