the engine roars, as i work my way up through the gears, the sun has worked its way above the windscreen and the droplets of moisture on the bonnet begin to slide up and over. as the buildings subside, a wide expanse of water is revealed. a sheet of crystal clear glass, cool and refreshing awaits my view. a bird lowers its beak into the water. the cityscape comes into sight across kilometres of smooth and inviting waterway. the skyscrapers sparkle, runners, riders, drivers, and passengers all drawn to the same direction. my car pulls to the left and i hit sixth gear, joining them.
sometimes, when you forget about late night & sunday trading you realise there’s not that many other places like this.
I have rarely pondered this, but I have been the last few days. Working backwards from university, I realise how much my marks and effort decreased from year 1 through to final year university. I graduated with a course average of 55%, I failed many units, one I nearly failed three times.
In high school, I studied for a couple of my TEE exams, Economics I studied on the morning of. I had a TES of 314 (out of 510). I have merit certificates from year 8 & 9 for performing well at something. The economics teacher would always have me read from the book, as he thought I could be a news reader.
In primary school I was dux, and school captain. I did not do maths in year 7, as I had advanced to year 7 maths the previous year (the only time I got sent out of the class in my whole primary school life, was when I pointed out the mistake the teacher had made on the board when explaining a maths problem). I read the most books in the year when we had a reading competition. I was asked to tutor a fellow student with reading difficulties. When a student joined our class from Hong Kong, I was his mentor, and helped him settle in and learn English.
I used to read before I was enrolled in pre-school. I remember the books I read, and I remember mum reading them with me. If there’s one thing in this story that has remained true, is that I love to read.
I imagine this story to be similar to many others. I have not yet dissected it as much as I think it could be, however. What changed to cause the downward slide? Was it the introduction of other external factors moving in to high school? Was it the realisation that to get places in life, you need to focus on some areas and not others? Was it that everything was more fun once you get to the age that you can control your own life? I don’t know, all I know is by the time I graduated university I was borderline passing, but it is directly related to effort. So the trick is to find out why the motivation for effort slowly degraded over time I suppose.
It all has no bearing now of course, but it’s interesting to me nonetheless.
