Recovering teenage dirtbag
Although I have an Honours degree now, I didn’t finish high school. I clearly still have some baggage around it because I dream about having to go back and finish school semi-regularly.
As you can imagine, this doesn’t come up very often when I’m awake. Once you have a university degree, everyone just assumes you finished school. Once you have a (certain kind of) career, people just assume you went to uni. You very rarely get asked for the receipts.
But lately I’ve been realising that I didn’t fail high school; high school failed me. Several high schools actually. I’m still mulling over whether ADHD is part of my identity but I definitely had the kind of struggles that I’ve seen my daughter face since her diagnosis.
Being a high school drop out mostly doesn’t bother me, but next year my daughter will be completing a school year that I never did. In addition to the fact that I’m a geriatric millennial so I did School Certificate rather than NCEA, I can feel myself getting less confident in my parenting role when it comes to school. Like at any time there could be a ‘gotcha!’ moment where I’m revealed as the ignoramus who doesn’t know how high school works.
But enough of this pity party. I’m so lucky to have so many other things going for me: not least of which being that I am a native English speaker. I can’t imagine how intimidating the education system must be for those who not only haven’t participated in it themselves, but don’t speak the language their child is learning in.
How about you? Is your high school failure (or success!) ever relevant in your adult life?