Blind Panic

So for many of us in the UK it is Exam season, for a few of you the exams have already started, and for a few of us A2 students the exams are about to begin.

PANIC!!! That is the general feeling that everyone is getting at the moment.  We are told from an early age that these exams will define who we are and what we get to become, but is this the case? and how much do we really need to pass these exams.
We have three pressures on us at this moment in time:

1. parental pressure - pressure coming from our parents pushing us to succeed and not fail them.

2. peer pressure - the pressure of competing against people of similar ages to you.

3. self pressure - the pressure that we put on ourselves in order to achieve what we want.

But these pressures amount to the confusion of why we need to pass; with so many opinions flying around it is hard as teenagers knowing what is expected of us.  The worst feeling is not knowing what is to come after these exams, do we all really need to go to university in order to get a good job?

Now the answer as you are reading this will most likely be yes.  In many ways you are not far from the truth, it does help you to succeed in the job or university interview process.  However, some of the greatest successes come from those people who did not necessarily pass their exams, for example Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg and David Beckham.  Admittedly their success is based off of talent or luck but this does help, I feel, help us as the people taking those exams to calm down. 

I feel that as a generation we are pushed more and given less of a chance to prove ourselves, those who are not necessarily exam smart may have better common sense then the rest of us.  We are discriminated against with the view that exams are getting easier rather than being rewarded when we succeed.  This is where this 'blind panic' comes from, we are pushed so hard that we feel that if we do not attain those grades A - A* then we have failed, but this is simply not the case. 

We teens should focus on our strengths and what we enjoy as much as what is expected of us because we are the future of the world, we could be the politicians that lead the new world, the next biggest boy band or solo artist, the greatest athlete to ever exist or even the most successful business entrepreneur in the world.  Whether we chose to innovate or continue a previous idea, these exams will not define us, they will not represent who we are and they will not hinder us in life. 

I do however, wish you all luck in your exams, I do not wish you to stop trying but I wish that you see a different perspective and that you realise that there is always a different option for you. 

A Political Detail

Please read and leave a comment about the creative piece I wrote for my English coursework:

A Political Detail

… Day 1, my parents keep telling us to stay together, we have no idea where we are.  We’ve travelled for what seemed like years.  My little sister, Bernice keeps crying, and Mutter and Papa are trying their best to keep her calm. We are in a small room, with one toilette between us.  We are Jews…

The diary entries were hidden in between small cracks in the wall of the cell. 

Day 1,825. My name was Eric Silvermann, now I am prisoner 55768, one of the many children placed in hell on earth; darkness had descended upon me, nothing but the light from this candle fills the soiled cell that is my home…

More and more pieces of the diary entry were being pulled from the wall: mixtures of parchment, cloth, toilet paper, pages from books with small etched messages in ink and pencil were opening our eyes to the horrors of this political hell.

17, a number that no one actually cares about; It has become meaningless to me...  Thomas Jenkins has just crawled past me; I have tried to kill him once before, but now his rat features and his small tail are a blessing.  Small bread crumbs from supper attract my small friend; nothing made me happier than the conversation he and I will now have…

As I wander about the room I find more and more pieces of paper revealing more of the boy’s story to me.

…Day 740, the guards took me away from my sister, my mama and my Papa, I am weak.  My arms are thin.  The posts on the bed that I have been given are thicker.    They were taken towards the tall towers in the distance, probably for some extensive work.  They said they needed me here so I could continue building…

The room was no bigger than six by six feet.  How had this boy lived for so long in this small prison cell?

Day 1,867: my nails are blackened and the cut on my leg has started to itch.  The guards have refused to help me yet again, and there is no medicine or doctor to tend to scars.  My life is considered meaningless; I am just a boy… 

Each document that is found in this room has been hidden in cracks, door hinges and as mattress fillings.  The cell is a room of secrets and it is brutally honest with each note it releases.

Day 1,870: I stole a piece of cheese from the officer’s mess; if I am caught I will surely lose my life.  hunger drives me to extreme lengths, I haven’t eaten in days and I need to keep my strength if I am to survive…

It was becoming increasingly clearer to us that the people trapped here had suffered but from reading these pages of this one boy’s life it was becoming clear to me the full extent of human suffering in such a time as this.

…I have been counting the days since I arrived.  I still have my dressing gown which is of great comfort to me as none of the other prisoners have been allowed to keep their original clothes.  I still remember the night I was taken.   It is a cold evening in mid-December; the snow has left a crisp even white along the camp which we have been forced to live in…

The rest of this page was charred from some sort of fire damage that had gone on in the back corner of the room it crumbled in my hand and left no evidence of ever being written.

…The camp was an echo of our history that was to follow.  I can now say that at least I will be remembered as one of the many…

Part of the wall had crumbled away on one side, a distinctive feature of time; revealing more messages for those who would take the time to read.  Eric Silvermann is just one prisoner in this camp, but why was he confined to solitude?

In one of the small cracks I find another note.

…Day 1,950, my strength is almost none existent.  I can hardly get out of bed to do the work, and I can only move one rock whilst working, the guards have started bets to see how much longer I will survive.  My life is almost over, and I have not seen my parents or sister since…

The page had water stains on it and was torn on each side the bad looked different from the others, the writing was shakier than previously and it seemed to wither away at the end of his sentences.  Eric had lost a lot of weight by this time had been bed bound and was ready for...

…day 1,951, I am to be transported to the towers… Death no longer scares me, the fear has overcome me. I have seen my own friends turn on their families in order to survive. I have seen people I once knew before this horror; destroy their own village for this war.  What I have learnt is human life is meaningless in a war, we are just humans, we are just a political detail.  Friendships are destroyed.  Families are killed. Voices are lost…

Prisoner 55768 – died June 17^th 1945

                                Age 17 years 6 months

                                Gender: Male

                                Name: Eric Johan Silvermann

                                Religion: Jewish

                                Method of death: Gassed

Eric Silvermann is one of the brave.  He is a political detail, in a war that was cruel.  The Nazi party collected him and millions of other Jews in an ‘attempt to purge the world’, even if they were directed by a mad man.  He and many other Jews were forced into trains, possessions taken off them and rights stripped from them.  In 1933 Hitler finally achieved the majority vote and started the extermination of European Jews.  Eric Silvermann is just one of six million. 

What will you choose?

I apologise for anyone that has been waiting for another blog, it has been a while since I last wrote.

The other day I was thinking just how one moment can define everything you stand for, what sort of person you are to become, what sort of father/mother you are to be.  I started thinking at that moment,  that life is a hell of a lot easier then we think.  It is a question of Yes or No.

Movies like Forrest Gump mesmerism us with its insight of life, depicting it 'as a box of chocolates', but I realised that it is wrong, we know exactly what our life is going to pan out to be like: Grow old, fall in love, work, succeed, fail and die.
 The bleak reality of life is are you willing to make those choices that will define you, or will you hide and make it difficult?  The choice is yours. The moment is there for the taking, grasp it, don't let go.

When your time comes what will you choose?

Sorry again for not posting in a couple of months.

Prowsey