You know, I've been thinking about my high school experience. It sucked. School was like a giant gray dull machine that drones on and on.... Dumb, naive, hormone-charged dinky teenagers arrive fresh from eighth grade (they act like they came from fifth and look like they came from fourth-I swear they get smaller every year), they go through the grinder, the gears, the teeth, the meaningless homework, the endless B.S. from administration, the suffering from mandatory hoops they have to jump through in order to meet their class requirements, and then finally after four years they get a piece of paper. It's a pretty piece of paper and should be worth something in the future, but it's really just a piece of paper. What the hell? Four years of nothing but endless work and tests, all for a paper? Oh, there's a handshake too.

There's little room for any creativity in school. They try to encourage problem solving and lateral thinking, when we can't express ourselves and find alternatives to getting what we want whether it be class related or not. When we succeed, they write us up and send us to the dungeons in the office where we get to smell the principle's fiery dragonbreath. If they actually wanted to make schools a better place, they'd encourage students to find what they're passionate about doing when they get out of college. I absolutely cannot tolerate it when I converse with someone about my plans for my future, and they tell me that they don't even know what they want to do. I try to open as many doors as possible by gaining as many skills as possible. Mind you, NONE of these skills are taught in school (3D animation, game development, game concept art, weapon replicating, 3D digital sculpting, etc.). This is a putrid system. The machine takes everyone through the same line, the ones who follow the rules, understand the work, kiss ass to the administration, and have a game plan make it out with something more than what's been bolted into their head. Those who don't understand the rules, who hate the administration, could care less about the work, and write their futures as they go, they get pushed off the line like a reject box on a conveyer. They get pushed into an endless spiral of confusion, frustration, needless help, discipline, and eventually they drop out or get kicked out. I found where I lie. I got off of that line. I do the work, but hate it. I retain knowledge, but eventually forget it. I express my creativity using my skills that I've learned on my own. That's something. I can proudly say that I've "broken" away from the machine. And after this year, they'll never take me back...