The last step

Come tomorrow, many of us will be crying 'freedom!'

At long last...?

On wednesday, as the Econs case study scripts were being collected, it felt as though it was already over, and indeed, the worst had passed. 7 gruelling papers in 3 days. I guess those were the 3 most important days.

But strangely, instead of an immense sense of relief, I felt a tinge of... sadness.

Because you see, it is our very last major examination of this sorts. We have been grappling with attending lessons, mugging, exam stress... since ages ago. And we do not like it. It has become an endless chain reaction for almost all of us - slacking first, then the stress comes and we start mugging, then more stress comes with the arrival of the exams, then celebration, then more celebration / disappointment when the results arrive, and then, back to slacking again. We have sat for countless of tests and 3 major examinations. Think of all the late nights you've endured and the study marathons you may have engaged in... all the times you have panicked when IT comes sooner than you think... crazy things you might have done because of exam stress... Come tomorrow, when we shade that last oval, it'll seem like a gaint full stop to this whole chain reaction.

Thus, this A levels puts a full stop to one phase of our life, and like a runner who is running his last marathon, it has special significance. Don't be too quick to dismiss it, for years down the road, you might be wishing that you were still in this sheltered environment, where we are still in control of our own results; just like how we wish we were still in primary school sometimes.

Also, as we put down this last full stop, all that we have learnt will slowly drain away. Integration, Differentiation, Trigo, Probability, Stats, Newton's Laws, Faraday's Law, Kirchhoff (the man whose name is so tricky to spell), EMI (Irritating topic), Bonding, Organic Chem, the dreaded Biochem, Kinetics, Electrochem, Economies of Scale, Keynesian's Theory, Classical theory, monopoly (no not the game), Market power, Market failure... and the list goes on.

Most of us can sit for a paper now and get an A for it. We're in tip-top condition. But the knowledge we acquire is hardly of any use to us, and even if it has, we won't purposefully try to use that knowledge. Years of studying... and its going to waste away. I mean, its harder trying to find a useful application of what we have learnt than getting 4As and S paper distinctions. Because we aren't taught that in depth enough to be able to make any real change with what we have learnt. So, if that's the case, what use are As?

Well, perhaps we can just find some uses if we try hard enough.
I can punch someone and say, "Hey! By Newton's Third Law, you're hitting me back with an equal force. So we're square." In my free time, I can cook up imaginary numbers in my bank account and wonder what they'll look like in an argand diagram. I can even kill someone - by shaking him at a frequency of 10 hertz so that his internal organs vibrate in resonance. I can also steal someone's diamonds, replace it with graphite and say, "Hey look! Your diamond turned into carbon! I've checked my data booklet, the reaction IS feasible." And when we're slapped with higher GST rates, no one can fool me. Its a regressive tax! And so I'll adjust my consumption and savings function so that the government can't get any extra tax revenue out of me...

Well enough of crap.. I'm sleepy (again). All the best, S44, for chem paper tomorrow. And since its our final last normal paper and its MCQ, I hope that we can actually be happy doing it, for the act of doing it itself, and not just because we're looking forward to freedom after that. Because we'll never really be free; life always plunges us into new and more difficult challenges, and we just have the appreciate the finer points about what we're doing.

So end with a bang! And celebrate your 'freedom', while it lasts...

Wilbur