No We Can

ɴᴏ ᴡᴇ ᴄᴀɴ

It was a rare warm spring day in England, and I was walking home after an exhaustingly long day at school. Everything was about exams and revision. Usually I would take the bus home, but it was such a nice day that I wanted to walk next to the fields.
My way home was filled with trees and bushes, on top of that, since it was spring, the flowers had started to bloom. If I had taken the bus, I wouldn't have noticed these small details, instead I would've been on my phone or spaced out. Honestly, I hated taking the bus, it made me so nervous being in such an enclosed space with so many people, however some days the walk wasjust too long or too cold.
While I was walking, a blur of orange fluttered past my face.

A butterfly.

It landed on some white flowers on a bush. "You know, butterflies have it good, they get to fly around and look pretty. Butterflies don't have to deal with exams," I thought as I looked at the winged insect just standing on the flower. After my short stop to admire the creature, I continued to walk on.

On walks like that my mind wonders off to different places about different things. For example, once I wondered if the headmaster of my school sees students as people or if he just sees us as grades or a marketing technique.
I wouldn't be surprised if he did see us only as grades. All my time at school, I never had a proper, one on one conversation with him, instead when I saw him it's in assemblies, and he was talking about things that I don't think even he believed.
Almost everything he said was a contradiction to me. "Don't stress out too much" but then he would say "Do an impossible amount of revision", well, he didn't say that exactly, however if you do the maths in your head, he might as well have said it.

So, there's twenty four hours in a day, eight hours is the recommended amount of sleep, we spend around six hours at school, then you have to take time off for eating, let's say around two hours at maximum, an hour off to talk to family and friends, around two hours off for getting ready in the morning and at night (showering, brushing teeth, makeup, etc), an hour for travelling to and from school, an hour off for homework, and finally let's knock off one hour for free time. That's leaves two hours, my headmaster recommended four to five hours a day for revision. That would be somewhat acceptable for the weekend, even though, some people would still have things to do with their family and friends.

On top of that, he said we shouldn't be "too" stressed about exams. What about people who are generally stressed? What about people with mental illnesses? What does "too stressed" mean? Did he even think about this stuff?

By the time I got home, I was deep in thought.

The headmaster said that we can't pass our exams by following everything he says. Even though, that is in no way true. The way that I learn isn't the same as my friend's, and I'm naturally better at some subjects than others. Everyone is different, so nothing can work for everyone.

Thinking about all of that just got me worked up. To the point where I felt like I should do or say something. As if it was my job to highlight how outdated the headmaster's ideas were.

I decided to tell my friends about what I thought and about how stupid it all was over the phone. They agreed but they didn't know what to do about it. "We need to do something," I pondered, searching for any clue. Then, an idea struck. Making posers and putting them all around school. It wouldn't change the headmaster's mind, however it would show that the students that agree with our message aren't alone.

Together we got to making the posters. One of us writing what it would say, one of us designing the layout and one of us printing out copies.

It ended up saying:

"We aren't a grade, we aren't a statistic, we aren't your advertisement.
We are people.
We can pass without following your orders.
No, we will pass."

We got to school early and all of us worked together to put the posters up. Hell, even some teachers agreed to help by putting posters in their classrooms. It was amazing to see the finished product, but it would be even better to see everyone else's reaction.

By the end of the day, people were posting pictures of the posters on their social media, praising the message. The headmaster had seen them and wasn't very happy about the posers, it did end up getting us sent to his office, though all of us weren't troublemakers, I hadn't even had a detention before. Therefore, our punishment wasn't so harsh. We were told to take down the posters in the areas that we hadn't got permission to put them up and we got a few weeks detention, though the posters that teachers put up in their classroom got to stay, which served as a reminder of what we accomplished.

When asked what my quote for the yearbook was at the end of the year, I replied:

"We can and we did."