An anniversary of sorts - life beyond Year Twelve

By Emily G.

I graduated from high school on the 19th of October, 2012.
I can barely believe it myself, but yes - it has been almost a year since.
Finishing school is a huge milestone in a young person's life. What your entire existence seemed to have revolved around for thirteen years draws quickly to a close, and you are spat out into the "real world"; wide-eyed and confused, unsure of where to go from there.
You had lived in a state of blissful ignorance, nodding and smiling your way through all the things your parents and teachers had tried to tell you about life as a certified adult, and suddenly you feel as though you ought to have listened more carefully - but you realise quickly that experience is the only thing that can truly teach you anything about this life.
The summer holidays begin and we embrace our new found freedom with a burning passion. We may decide to travel somewhere near and dear to us or somewhere distant and exotic, but we all celebrate our victories in a very similar fashion. "Schoolies" is a badge of honour, an adventure we had most likely been planning for the past nine months, a "happy place" we'd escape to in the midst of 2am study sessions that had finally proven itself to be real.

The real experience comes later, once the new year begins and the sun starts to edge further and further away from our side of the world. We start going to work, University, TAFE, or staring at our bedroom walls wondering what on earth we're meant to do with all this free time. This is it - what we'd been waiting for all this time! We are no longer high school students, but grown-ups! And it's... kind of daunting, really.

But there will come a point in everybody's first year as a real person when we realise nobody really seems to know what the hell is going on. Everybody - no matter how old - is simply drifting through the world, learning the ropes as they go. That's right - you may have escaped from the clutches of compulsory education, but there is still so much to learn.

And that's where I plan to go from here. I look back on my years as a secondary student with a great deal of nostalgia, but I look toward the future with hope.

Emily Greenwood