Infinite Ink

The academic "car"eer goes careening down the road

We tend to wish for the life we want, the exact way we want it. I wonder, if we were able to arrange things just the way we liked it, how often we would change things around. Bored with family? Exchange with someone. Rearrange your face until your nose sits exactly where you want it to be, how you want it to sit, but no, there it goes again, let me adjust it again, just so...

There would be no end to it. So it's a good thing we're stuck with the family we have and the noses we were born with.

The first serious exams I gave were my O Level exams. Then I gave FSc, and to tell the truth, I don't remember what FSc stands for, neither do I remember my marks. I honestly do not remember the marks I scored after O Levels and before college, in the two year interlude in which all sorts of things are packed together. Things like neverending chemical formulas, physics equations, dissecting frogs and cockroaches, commuting via bus, studying on the bus, laughing our heads off in the bus, catching the bus, waiting at the bus stop, but I was talking about my academic journey, not the bus ride. It crept in there somehow. Long commutes are a way of life for me. The people who live 5-15 minutes from their place of education or work? I come from a different planet, where the minimum travel time is 30 minutes. With traffic that keeps moving.

Anyway, my college teachers never ceased to be shocked when we had to consult our documents to fill out our student cards, because they thought our FSc results were imprinted on our hearts. My O Levels result is easy to remember, because it is in grades. The number game eludes me. Don't feel sad, FSc. It's not you, it's me. I don't remember my college annual exam marks either.

College for me is dental college, situated right next to the teaching hospital, where they teach you how to fix people's teeth for a living. I work there as part of my one year training after graduation, now. What lies ahead is misty and unclear. When I see where I'm headed, I'll tell you.

I'm not like those people who fall apart when they no longer have a strict routine to follow. Take away the rigid schedule of college or work and I operate just fine. Still, I get to hear so many graduates voicing their feelings of displacement as the end of the one year training comes near. The straight track of going from one qualification to another has ended, a world of opportunities awaits, and you have to lay the foundation of your practical life.

Do you remember your grades/marks from school/college/university? Why or why not?