Why we should delay High School
So I live in London now which is epic, but it has meant some of my stories have less impact now. Let me explain. I was once talking to a friend on a film shoot and she mentioned that her 1 year wedding anniversary was coming up. I asked how they were celebrating it and she told me about an exciting plan of dinner in the city and staying at a nice hotel. I was genuinely excited for them. She then asked me 'so what did you do for your 1st anniversary?' to which I smiled and said 'I took Jasmine to Paris'.
Now that is a jaw-dropping story when I lived in Australia, but over here it barely warrants an 'oh, that is nice'. Paris is a 75 min flight from London and you can get flights for less than you would pay for a family dinner at a burger joint.
That is a little misleading because dinner in London is on the expensive side, but anytime you have the choice between a meal or a flight to another country, you know you are very blessed.
So one thing I have decided to do now that I live here, is I would do all the things that you can't do easily in Australia - and the theatre is at the top of that list. You already know that I took the family to see Mary Poppins and it was sooooo good. Well, I saw a new small little show that had discounted tickets. I grabbed 2, and a mate and I saw it on Friday night. It was called 'Be More Chill' and that is all I knew.
Well, it was fantastic. A small cast of 10, an empty set with all scenes changes on a back screen and it felt like a live band.....but I had no idea where they were, so I am guessing it was just a really great recording.
It was set in high school and the main character who was not happy with his place in life had to make the choice to stay himself, or ingest a supercomputer that would take over his brain and tell him what to do. He obviously chooses the supercomputer, otherwise it would be a very short production, and of course, it improves then ruins his life.
The theme the whole production was based on is the concept of self-worth. Our nerdy protagonist thought he was not good enough so he took the supercomputer pill and became extremely popular. But when he was with the cool kids he found out that they struggled with this as well. I am probably an expert on this topic.
When I was in school I was not well-liked. For some reason the ability to run fast determined your social status at my school and I was slow. I don't know who determined that this was the case, but if anyone knows I would like to have some strong words with them. So when I changed schools to go to high school (or middle school for my US friends) I found more outcast kids like me and I formed a group. Finally, we didn't need the cool kids, we were outcasts together. Still not very liked but we didn't care. This all changed when I went into my final two years.
I choose not to stay at my school and change to a public college. This was 5 times the size of my school and seeing it was only years 11 and 12, over half the school was new. I was nervous but instead of shying away I did something really drastic. In my very first class we went around the room and said our names ,and on my turn, I blurted out 'I........ am the Sexy Beast'. True Story! I even got that printed on my student ID.
This was just the start. I kicked my confidence into overdrive and became 'that guy'. Funny, weird but insanely self-assured. Over a number of months I quickly became popular but it wasn't enough. I strived and strived to be the most popular kid in the school.
It was like I had taken a supercomputer pill but in reality, I had done something worse. I was lying to myself. I was still struggling with my self worth, I had just given myself a new and exciting skin. I had it all planned out but there was a problem. High school has an end date and I never once addressed this much-needed area of my life. In fact even today I find myself still struggling with it.
Self-doubt is real and it takes years of struggling to get better and better at dealing with it. This is why I believe we should all go to high school when we are 30.