Day 78

I am so, so very tired. This morning the air was bitter with frost, the only sign that winter had laid its claim in the Grand Valley. My partner and I gave our presentations on the Kikuyu mythology and found another tribe that was closely similar to it. We took our government test today for the Judicial branch and I feel very confident about it, but I'll probably get a C like I always do on the Government tests, but we're starting to watch the Lincoln movie which makes me really excited.

Also, I talked to my counselor today and tried to get three/four releases since I only need two classes left to graduate and am graduating with 32 out of 25 credits, but she told me I could only have two releases. What?! Really?! Only two?! But, I only need two more classes! I only need to show up TWICE to school! I worked hard to get those releases! Why don't I have them? Because the school is using me and all the other students as tickets to get more money for the school. See, the more students a school has in session, the more money they get. I understand, totally, especially when they put the money more towards the sports programs than the musical, but I get it. Except for the fact that I have to still be in school. I could have graduated early, but my counselor put all my required classes into my second semester, but I didn't mind because I was told that for first semester we were required only two releases, but second semester we could get more, and now I'm getting denied something I worked really hard to get.

That's called bullshit, my friends.

Instead of wasting my time for four hours I could be doing a four hour shift at work or even an eight hour shift and get home before ten at night. Instead, I have to take more classes that I don't need all for the sake of my school that wants to use me as a money cow. They tell you that high school is supposed to be the best time of your life, that being a teenager is supposed to be the best time of your life, but we were just being played so people could use us to their advantage instead of helping us to achieve our ambitions. That is what the American public school system is like and, on several occasions, it's almost ended my life. No matter how much I try, I will always be average in the eyes of my mentors who push me to be better than what I am. What if I don't want to be better because being what I am is the best? As good as a thought that is, it's either push to get to the front or get pushed aside and be left behind, thinking you were a failure when, in reality, it was the system that failed us.

We were being played all along.