When I was a child, the world seemed so wide, Part IV

[dolorosa_12]

When I was a high school student, I was incredibly busy, to put it mildly.


I took seven classes at school, when most people were taking six, and some were taking only five. This often entailed being in school from 8am to 4pm with no breaks, as every lunchtime (besides Tuesdays) was taken up with tutorials teaching us parts of the International Baccalaureate curriculum not covered in class.

I trained for nine or ten hours a week at gymnastics.

I practiced the piano for an hour every day, and went to an hour-long class once a week and an hour-long musical theory class every two weeks.

I volunteered at Amnesty International for about two hours every week.

I worked every Saturday from 7am to 4pm in a bakery/chocolate shop.

Every so often, I would go on a three-day-long hike for the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

During this time, I managed to get a UAI in the mid-90s. I competed in local and interstate gymnastics competitions, and sometimes managed quite respectable scores and places. I got As on my piano exams and musical theory exams. Who knows what we achieved for Amnesty, but the volunteering was quite satisfying. I held down the same job for more than two years and only quit when I moved town. And hiking? Well, it was awesome.

So why the hell am I now struggling with six hours of classes, none of which I'm actually being assessed in, and writing/researching solidly for six or seven hours per day?

Comments

[the-lil-spoon.livejournal.com]

i totally understand!! During high school i used to work 30hours a week and go to school, now i struggle with 15 hours driving a 38 hour work week and a class every Thursday!!!

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I know partly why all this was so much easier to manage then. When I was a student I:

A) Had someone to do all my cooking and shopping and transport for me; and
B) Basically never went out or did anything social - I socialised with my friends at school, at work, at gymnastics and piano and so on.

Housekeeping and socialising take up so much time and energy!

[anya-1984.livejournal.com]

I think it's a phd student affliction. For me, the reasons are:
1. I've done it before, and I so I know I never ever want to do that again.
2. As you said, we're not being assessed! So noone out there cares, including us :)

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're certainly right about that. However, I actually enjoyed being that busy at the time. College (ie Bundah) was one of the happiest times of my life, just because I was so busy that I didn't have time to think.

[catpuccino.livejournal.com]

Maybe because it was all we knew. And then we got older and realised that our time was our own and very precious.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

That's true, although as I said to anya_1984, I actually quite enjoyed my frantic high school existence, while it lasted. Too much spare time for me means too much time spent worrying about stuff like this.