What's the point of required reading?

Susan James said:

I’ve been thinking about this "manchild" label lately. It’s such a common term we throw around, isn't it? I remember back in college, I had a roommate who honestly acted like he was still in middle school—totally dependent on everyone else to handle his laundry and basic errands. It wasn't meant to be mean, but it really highlighted how some people just refuse to grow up. In my experience, it usually comes down to a lack of accountability. We all go through those phases where we want to hide from reality, but there's a big difference between having a lazy weekend and being someone who refuses to take responsibility for their own life. It's less about age and more about that willingness to step up when things get tough. Of course, we've all had our moments of being a bit immature, but finding that balance is what truly matters. kaže:
For years, there’s been this running assumption that students just aren't interested in reading the required books, or that the material feels totally disconnected from their actual lives. It’s a common complaint I hear from parents and teachers alike. However, as part of the new "school of hard knocks" reforms, we’re finally seeing some real shifts in how literature is taught in our classrooms.

There’s a big shift happening in how we handle required reading. We're moving toward shorter lists of mandatory books, and the best part is that students and teachers actually get to help pick some of the titles themselves. Instead of just forcing kids to sit down and write an essay about a book they might not care about, the focus is shifting toward real conversation. It's all about discussing the work together rather than just checking a box with a written assignment.

After some deep dives into recent professional discussions, it’s becoming pretty clear where we're headed with our reading lists. Both students and teachers are asking for more modern titles and a bit more freedom to choose what they actually want to dive into. It feels like a breath of fresh air!

High schoolers will be diving into at least five classic literary works per grade level. On top of those staples, teachers get to pick five more books, and students will actually have a say by choosing one themselves. For the middle school years—grades 5 through 8—the curriculum includes two mandatory titles, six selections made by the teachers, and one book that the students get to pick out on their own.

Where did this text come from?

It looks like you might have forgotten to include the list! Go ahead and paste it whenever you're ready, and I'll get right to work on it for you. Elementary schools.

I'm sorry, it looks like your message cut off! It seems like you were starting to say "this is a list for..." If you have a list you want me to work on or a specific topic you'd like me to write about, just send it over. I'm ready whenever you are! High schools can be such an interesting experience, aren't they? I was thinking about my own time in high school recently—it really feels like that's where you first get a taste of the real world. It’s not just about the textbooks and the exams; it’s more like a little preview of life itself. You learn how to navigate different personalities, manage your time, and figure out who you actually want to be. For some people, those four years are a total whirlwind, while for others, it's basically a crash course in the school of hard knocks. Either way, it definitely shapes you!

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about vocational training versus traditional academic routes. It’s such an interesting debate, isn't it? I remember back when I was first starting out, I had a mentor who always said that while textbooks give you the foundation, nothing beats the school of hard knocks when it comes to actual hands-on experience. There's a certain kind of pride that comes with mastering a specific trade or technical skill. Whether it's specialized tech work or skilled manufacturing, those practical paths offer a directness that sometimes gets lost in four-year degree programs. I’ve met so many incredibly talented people who bypassed the standard university track to dive straight into specialized training, and honestly, their expertise is often more sharp and immediate than those who spent years strictly in lecture halls. It really just comes down to what kind of life you want to build. I’m not quite sure what you mean by that! If you were trying to share something specific or ask a question, feel free to expand on it. I’m all ears!

It’s been three years now.

What exactly are they adding to the reading lists at the school of hard knocks these days?

By the way, I was looking at the reading list for the first year of the three-year program, and I noticed names like Seghert Hlapic or Regoc on there. Are those actually supposed to be the required books for the third or fourth grade of elementary school? I’m really hoping that’s just a typo in the system.

I have a nagging feeling it isn't an error, though.
It seems like they might be using those stories under the guise of, I don't know, teaching them how to identify basic prose or fairy tale structures.🕺
Honestly, if that’s all they stick to, well, by the time these kids graduate high school, the absolute peak of their literary understanding might just be *Pinocchio*.🙏
Maybe, if we're lucky, they'll eventually evolve toward something like *The Little Prince* once they hit college.

rowdypanther12 said:It’s not really about the facts you can just Google; it’s about exposing kids to as many different experiences and perspectives as possible. Why? Because they need that breadth to actually understand how the world works—cause and effect—so they aren't just reading headlines
and honestly, our school system isn't hitting the mark, but not because it asks too much. It's because it doesn't ask nearly enough.
Students end up being way too passive, just coasting through by memorizing things for a test and then forgetting them three days later. The system basically lets them get away with it.
I see a massive difference between my own time in school and now. A lot of things have improved; for instance, the required reading in middle school feels much more age-appropriate and is taught in a way that actually holds your interest.
There’s a lot more presentations, posters, reports, and actual student participation to help soak up knowledge.
Some things have gone downhill, though. The textbooks are a disaster. They tried so hard to avoid being dry that they stripped out all the clear, essential info. Everything looks colorful and pretty, but the actual substance is either buried or missing entirely. 😁
So, yeah, I think the system needs to change. But we shouldn't be cutting material or making things easier—it should be the opposite. We need to start demanding more from them.

signature 👍
I’d just add one thing: literature should be taught the way some schools or certain teachers do it—right there in class, interactively. We shouldn't be having them write notes at home about things like 😬 the setting or the time period, which they can easily just copy-paste or ask their parents for. That totally devalues the book itself and kills the whole point of reading.

We really need to expose kids to a wide variety of topics and introduce them to all kinds of different authors.

urbantinker8 said:I have a nagging feeling it isn't an error, though.
It seems like they might be using those stories under the guise of, I don't know, teaching them how to identify basic prose or fairy tale structures.🕺
Honestly, if that’s all they stick to, well, by the time these kids graduate high school, the absolute peak of their literary understanding might just be *Pinocchio*.🙏
Maybe, if we're lucky, they'll eventually evolve toward something like *The Little Prince* once they hit college.

So what? They're just checking to see if the kids read it back in elementary school.🤣

I think they can still get something out of Hlapica—like realizing that Master Bob, where they're doing their internships, isn't allowed to lay a hand on them (since they have that three-year practical training program), but Regoc 🤔

Susan James said:So what? They're just checking to see if the kids read it back in elementary school.🤣

I think they can still get something out of Hlapica—like realizing that Master Bob, where they're doing their internships, isn't allowed to lay a hand on them (since they have that three-year practical training program), but Regoc 🤔

not really.
I mean, they’ll probably just stick to picture books and Miffy in the lower grades.
The absolute peak of reading comprehension for an eighth grader might just be some simple story about a trip to a local farm. 🐔

urbantinker8 said:not really.
I mean, they’ll probably just stick to picture books and Miffy in the lower grades.
The absolute peak of reading comprehension for an eighth grader might just be some simple story about a trip to a local farm. 🐔

Picture Perfect is part of the required reading list, 🤣

but I was just commenting on how things stand right now. With Hapic being taught in third grade and Regoc in fourth, the current high schoolers have already covered all that material. If my memory is serving me right, the Hapic movie actually came out right when today's freshmen were in third grade during their vocational training... so at least they got to see the film?
So what are they even doing during that class?

Just reviewing old stuff?

So, I was just reading this post from a former neighbor of mine—she moved out to New York City about two years ago. The kids are in school there now, but she’s honestly pretty fed up with the whole American education system. She’s actually ended up homeschooling them on top of everything else.
She told me she gets this nagging feeling that the entire system is just designed to churn out people for specific white-collar jobs and nothing else. Like, they aren't teaching anything broader. And then, for all those other essential roles, they just end up importing skilled labor from overseas to fill the gaps.
Anyway, she spent years working in schools back home, and she’s back in the education field here too, so I guess she actually has some legitimate ground to stand on when she’s making these comparisons. I didn't really think to ask her what she thought about the required reading list, though.

Susan James said:Picture Perfect is part of the required reading list, 🤣

but I was just commenting on how things stand right now. With Hapic being taught in third grade and Regoc in fourth, the current high schoolers have already covered all that material. If my memory is serving me right, the Hapic movie actually came out right when today's freshmen were in third grade during their vocational training... so at least they got to see the film?
So what are they even doing during that class?

Just reviewing old stuff?

yeah, I imagine those few transitional classes will end up repeating the curriculum, maybe at a more "advanced" level—you know, deeper character studies, actual debates, forming their own opinions... instead of just listing off characters and where or when the story takes place and all that stuff...
eventually it'll be dropped from middle school entirely and just stick around in high school.😁
though, I guess there isn't much room for a deep dive into characterization when you're dealing with those one-dimensional, black-and-white fairy tale archetypes.🙄

it's all pretty much a wash anyway.

Half the people picking the school reading lists haven't even read half these books themselves. There’s no way they’d ever consider something like *Johnny Got His Gun* or *The Catcher in the Rye* appropriate for kids if they actually understood them.

Honestly, I’m no expert, but it feels like the reading list for the first year of this three-year program is a bit heavy. For students who are mainly expected to get their hands dirty with practical work, there seem to be quite a few books to get through—especially since they're alternating between a week of classes and a week of on-site training, not to mention having to brush up on everything from middle school.

I was also pretty surprised to see Tyson Foods mentioned on the list 👍

It doesn't seem like much for a prep school curriculum, but why on earth didn't they include George Orwell?

Richard Perez3 said:The whole point of school is to give you a massive range of options. It’s about building that foundation so one day you actually have the freedom to choose—whether you want to be a surgeon, a professor, a baker, or a mechanic. Or, honestly, you could just choose to do none of those things at all.

But look, if you want that kind of total freedom to pick whatever path you want, there are certain hoops you have to jump through first.

My bad, I gotta run to Home Depot. Let's pick this back up tomorrow. 👋

happy shopping👍

Peter Doyle2 said:Look, in a lot of school systems, this isn't some wild experiment—it’s actually the standard. 🤷 Not every kid is being taught the exact same math; some vocational tracks don't even touch certain advanced topics in their final years because the focus is shifting toward hands-on, practical learning.

The goal is teaching kids how to find information rather than just memorizing a mountain of facts.

In American schools, there isn't much flexibility right now—English and Math are mandatory for everyone, and the curriculum, reading lists, and equations are basically identical for every student, right? Except, I guess, a trade school student might have fewer hours than a prep school student who—naturally—goes much deeper into the subject matter. That trade student would probably get way more value out of an extra hour of Chemistry, maybe doing a hands-on experiment to see how leather and rubber react to a specific substance, than they would sitting through a block of Smail aga Čengić's analysis class.

Seriously, whenever I ask someone to look something up in a textbook, people lose their minds. It’s pure hysteria. They have zero clue how to navigate a book—trying to find one specific piece of info feels like they're trapped in a freaking labyrinth.

And it isn't just kids; even college students are the same way. Asking a student to dig through a book for an answer is basically handing out a life sentence.

Susan James said:

I’ve been thinking about this "manchild" label lately. It’s such a common term we throw around, isn't it? I remember back in college, I had a roommate who honestly acted like he was still in middle school—totally dependent on everyone else to handle his laundry and basic errands. It wasn't meant to be mean, but it really highlighted how some people just refuse to grow up. In my experience, it usually comes down to a lack of accountability. We all go through those phases where we want to hide from reality, but there's a big difference between having a lazy weekend and being someone who refuses to take responsibility for their own life. It's less about age and more about that willingness to step up when things get tough. Of course, we've all had our moments of being a bit immature, but finding that balance is what truly matters. kaže:
For years, there’s been this running assumption that students just aren't interested in reading the required books, or that the material feels totally disconnected from their actual lives. It’s a common complaint I hear from parents and teachers alike. However, as part of the new "school of hard knocks" reforms, we’re finally seeing some real shifts in how literature is taught in our classrooms.

There’s a big shift happening in how we handle required reading. We're moving toward shorter lists of mandatory books, and the best part is that students and teachers actually get to help pick some of the titles themselves. Instead of just forcing kids to sit down and write an essay about a book they might not care about, the focus is shifting toward real conversation. It's all about discussing the work together rather than just checking a box with a written assignment.

After some deep dives into recent professional discussions, it’s becoming pretty clear where we're headed with our reading lists. Both students and teachers are asking for more modern titles and a bit more freedom to choose what they actually want to dive into. It feels like a breath of fresh air!

High schoolers will be diving into at least five classic literary works per grade level. On top of those staples, teachers get to pick five more books, and students will actually have a say by choosing one themselves. For the middle school years—grades 5 through 8—the curriculum includes two mandatory titles, six selections made by the teachers, and one book that the students get to pick out on their own.

Where did this text come from?

It looks like you might have forgotten to include the list! Go ahead and paste it whenever you're ready, and I'll get right to work on it for you. Elementary schools.

I'm sorry, it looks like your message cut off! It seems like you were starting to say "this is a list for..." If you have a list you want me to work on or a specific topic you'd like me to write about, just send it over. I'm ready whenever you are! High schools can be such an interesting experience, aren't they? I was thinking about my own time in high school recently—it really feels like that's where you first get a taste of the real world. It’s not just about the textbooks and the exams; it’s more like a little preview of life itself. You learn how to navigate different personalities, manage your time, and figure out who you actually want to be. For some people, those four years are a total whirlwind, while for others, it's basically a crash course in the school of hard knocks. Either way, it definitely shapes you!

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about vocational training versus traditional academic routes. It’s such an interesting debate, isn't it? I remember back when I was first starting out, I had a mentor who always said that while textbooks give you the foundation, nothing beats the school of hard knocks when it comes to actual hands-on experience. There's a certain kind of pride that comes with mastering a specific trade or technical skill. Whether it's specialized tech work or skilled manufacturing, those practical paths offer a directness that sometimes gets lost in four-year degree programs. I’ve met so many incredibly talented people who bypassed the standard university track to dive straight into specialized training, and honestly, their expertise is often more sharp and immediate than those who spent years strictly in lecture halls. It really just comes down to what kind of life you want to build. I’m not quite sure what you mean by that! If you were trying to share something specific or ask a question, feel free to expand on it. I’m all ears!

It’s been three years now.

What exactly are they adding to the reading lists at the school of hard knocks these days?

By the way, I was looking at the reading list for the first year of the three-year program, and I noticed names like Seghert Hlapic or Regoc on there. Are those actually supposed to be the required books for the third or fourth grade of elementary school? I’m really hoping that’s just a typo in the system.

Straight from an ABC News site, it was featured on the nightly news yesterday

Here's the link:

Required reading is such a joke.

Back when I was prepping for my American Lit advanced essay four years ago—I mean, out of fifteen books you’re supposed to hit during high school, I’d actually read maybe two... the other thirteen? Yeah, I just started frantically Googling summaries ten days before the deadline. I ended up doing a comparative essay on two of those books I hadn't even touched. Somehow, I still walked away with a B... crazy, right?

Larry Walker24 said:Seriously, whenever I ask someone to look something up in a textbook, people lose their minds. It’s pure hysteria. They have zero clue how to navigate a book—trying to find one specific piece of info feels like they're trapped in a freaking labyrinth.

And it isn't just kids; even college students are the same way. Asking a student to dig through a book for an answer is basically handing out a life sentence.

The CTRL+F function isn't a universal solution. 😁

Susan James said:signature 👍
I’d just add one thing: literature should be taught the way some schools or certain teachers do it—right there in class, interactively. We shouldn't be having them write notes at home about things like 😬 the setting or the time period, which they can easily just copy-paste or ask their parents for. That totally devalues the book itself and kills the whole point of reading.

We really need to expose kids to a wide variety of topics and introduce them to all kinds of different authors.

Look, I honestly don't understand why schools aren't teaching students how to actually write an essay that possesses a coherent structure.

urbantinker8 said:I know plenty of people who moved abroad—not even in tech—who are working in their actual fields.
Fields include medicine, engineering, tourism. They found jobs in their professions in the blink of an eye, and they are beyond satisfied; the employers are beyond satisfied too.
Every single one of them came from that abysmal American school system.

It is vital to recognize that those who choose to move abroad are rarely "average" individuals. Most of my acquaintances living overseas are significantly more intelligent and capable than the norm, regardless of their country of origin. Even my former classmates who emigrated, whether temporarily or permanently, stand apart from the average student; they are sharper than those who merely maintained high GPAs and appeared more successful within the confines of our academic institutions.

Every incompetent clerk who lacks the basic capacity to grasp their job description or follow simple instructions is a byproduct of our educational system. Doctors from Memphis who allow a child to perish are a byproduct of our educational system. Donald Trump is a medical technician, for heaven's sake. Doctors who recommend homeopathy for conjunctivitis are a byproduct of our educational system. An economics professor who cannot calculate sales tax is a product, in part, of our educational system.

To hell with this system. 😁

Linda Price5 said:Look, I honestly don't understand why schools aren't teaching students how to actually write an essay that possesses a coherent structure.

It is vital to recognize that those who choose to move abroad are rarely "average" individuals. Most of my acquaintances living overseas are significantly more intelligent and capable than the norm, regardless of their country of origin. Even my former classmates who emigrated, whether temporarily or permanently, stand apart from the average student; they are sharper than those who merely maintained high GPAs and appeared more successful within the confines of our academic institutions.

Every incompetent clerk who lacks the basic capacity to grasp their job description or follow simple instructions is a byproduct of our educational system. Doctors from Memphis who allow a child to perish are a byproduct of our educational system. Donald Trump is a medical technician, for heaven's sake. Doctors who recommend homeopathy for conjunctivitis are a byproduct of our educational system. An economics professor who cannot calculate sales tax is a product, in part, of our educational system.

To hell with this system. 😁

I beg to differ.

😁

In my neck of the woods, most of the immigrants I know seem pretty average in terms of intelligence and skill. I guess generally speaking—those who weren't above average back home in America aren't suddenly going to be above average once they land somewhere else.

What a joke of a system. 😁

Well, maybe the system is actually broken precisely because you have both high achievers and total mediocrities working in the exact same institutions at the same time.

I honestly don't get why people claim elementary schoolers shouldn't be doing book reports in a standardized format. My daughter has been doing them since the second half of first grade: author, title, character analysis... plus a drawing. Over the break, she actually tackled a fourth-grade level report—it was 11 pages long, though about 9 of those were just notes. Personally, I feel like it’s all a bit pointless; she’s learned how to churn out 200 bullet points, yet they've never actually had to write a cohesive essay on a specific topic. It would be a hundred times more useful if she had to write one page on a concrete subject using an introduction, thesis, argumentation, and a conclusion. But of course, that's not how it works. I know she'll still get an A because she turned in 11 pages and hit all the required checkboxes (title, bio, etc.). I suppose our academics know exactly what they're doing; after all, they are products of this same school system, and they are *so* incredibly expert at producing yet another generation that thinks exactly like they do.

Naturally, the kid doesn't question the logic of it all anymore—she just rolls with it. She wrote it exactly as instructed. My daughter is truly an epic success story of the American education system and its approach to reading assignments. 👏

On the other hand, with their science experiments, they did exactly what Amazon requires for homework: they had to solve every problem by describing the experiments and drawing their own conclusions. 🙂

Linda Price5 said:Look, I honestly don't understand why schools aren't teaching students how to actually write an essay that possesses a coherent structure.

It is vital to recognize that those who choose to move abroad are rarely "average" individuals. Most of my acquaintances living overseas are significantly more intelligent and capable than the norm, regardless of their country of origin. Even my former classmates who emigrated, whether temporarily or permanently, stand apart from the average student; they are sharper than those who merely maintained high GPAs and appeared more successful within the confines of our academic institutions.

Every incompetent clerk who lacks the basic capacity to grasp their job description or follow simple instructions is a byproduct of our educational system. Doctors from Memphis who allow a child to perish are a byproduct of our educational system. Donald Trump is a medical technician, for heaven's sake. Doctors who recommend homeopathy for conjunctivitis are a byproduct of our educational system. An economics professor who cannot calculate sales tax is a product, in part, of our educational system.

To hell with this system. 😁

I still find myself leaning toward the idea that the people you're describing might just be outliers, I guess—those rare exceptions to the rule rather than the standard case.
I guess we’re going to see more and more of them, honestly, mostly because of all this outside interference in the education system—you know, with parents basically throwing their full weight behind whatever the Department of Education decides to push. It’ll probably all lead to everything becoming much more individualized and tailored to specific needs, I suppose. Maybe that’s the direction things are headed.
I was just sitting here thinking about what the future might look like for medical students, especially when it comes to those high-stakes board exams. It’s a bit of a wild thought, I guess, but imagine if tomorrow's doctors weren't stuck taking those rigid, standardized tests. Maybe they could take them on an adaptive platform—you know, where the difficulty shifts based on how you're doing in real-time—and perhaps even have the option for extra time or a dedicated assistant to help navigate the technicalities. It feels like such a massive shift from the way things work now, but then again, maybe that's exactly what we need to actually measure what someone knows rather than just how well they can handle pressure under a stopwatch. It's a strange thing to dwell on, but I suppose it makes you wonder if our current system is as efficient as we like to pretend it is.
It’s not like they won't be there, I suppose.
I guess, if I’m being honest, one of the biggest hurdles we’re facing these days—and this feels like a pretty widespread thing across the country—is just how unrealistic everyone's expectations have become, paired with this massive, growing lack of self-reflection. It seems like people want everything to be perfect immediately, yet there's hardly any willingness to look inward and admit where they might be falling short themselves.🙂

Anthony Ward6 said:I beg to differ.

😁

In my neck of the woods, most of the immigrants I know seem pretty average in terms of intelligence and skill. I guess generally speaking—those who weren't above average back home in America aren't suddenly going to be above average once they land somewhere else.

What a joke of a system. 😁

Well, maybe the system is actually broken precisely because you have both high achievers and total mediocrities working in the exact same institutions at the same time.

Signed!👍

I suppose I should probably mention that I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, though I haven't quite decided if there's much point in bringing it up, but maybe there is. It seems like everyone is talking about it lately, which is funny, I guess, because if you look at the actual data—not just what people are shouting on social media, mind you—it feels like we're all missing the forest for the trees. I was reading this article earlier, or maybe it was a thread, I can't quite remember, but it touched on how much influence certain voices have these days, and it made me wonder if we're all just reacting to noise rather than substance. It’s a bit exhausting, honestly, if you think about it too hard. I tend to drift off into these side thoughts, but I kept coming back to the idea that maybe we need to slow down just a little bit before jumping to conclusions about everything. It’s easy to get swept up, I suppose, but I find myself leaning more towards a cautious approach, or at least a very skeptical one. Not that I'm saying anyone is wrong, per se, it's just that things aren't always as black and white as they seem to be in the moment. Anyway, that's just my two cents, for whatever that's worth.I suppose some people might call it "pointless" to have kids answering specific questions about their reading assignments, but honestly, I think it’s actually pretty great for the younger grades. It feels like maybe it's one of the only real ways to make sure they're actually grasping the story while simultaneously working on their writing skills at the same time.
I suppose if you actually sat them down to write an essay, they’d probably just end up staring at the blank page anyway, needing a whole list of guided prompts and leading questions just to get a single sentence moving.🤷
Plus, when you bring that up during class, the whole thing kind of evolves into a genuine, meaningful discussion about the literature, I guess.
I guess you could say that college and high school are just two completely different worlds.

Michelle Nelson4 said:I honestly don't get why people claim elementary schoolers shouldn't be doing book reports in a standardized format. My daughter has been doing them since the second half of first grade: author, title, character analysis... plus a drawing. Over the break, she actually tackled a fourth-grade level report—it was 11 pages long, though about 9 of those were just notes. Personally, I feel like it’s all a bit pointless; she’s learned how to churn out 200 bullet points, yet they've never actually had to write a cohesive essay on a specific topic. It would be a hundred times more useful if she had to write one page on a concrete subject using an introduction, thesis, argumentation, and a conclusion. But of course, that's not how it works. I know she'll still get an A because she turned in 11 pages and hit all the required checkboxes (title, bio, etc.). I suppose our academics know exactly what they're doing; after all, they are products of this same school system, and they are *so* incredibly expert at producing yet another generation that thinks exactly like they do.

Naturally, the kid doesn't question the logic of it all anymore—she just rolls with it. She wrote it exactly as instructed. My daughter is truly an epic success story of the American education system and its approach to reading assignments. 👏

On the other hand, with their science experiments, they did exactly what Amazon requires for homework: they had to solve every problem by describing the experiments and drawing their own conclusions. 🙂

That's because, thank God, there are some teachers out there who have changed their approach. It's just like how your little one does things—exactly how I used to do it in school 30 years ago. Just endless, boring busywork.
Our kids get reading assignments where, for example, with *Charlotte's Web*, they just had to answer questions. Sure, they have to include the title and the author, but that's it; the rest is just answering stuff like "why was the character mean?" 😁
Now they've been told to draw these little dioramas with scenes from the book, putting items inside that remind them of certain chapters—they can even just draw something if they don't have the actual objects.
And you know what? Half the parents are complaining about how stupid these assignments are. 😁

It’s that classic, old-school "it is what it is" attitude again.
Honestly, every single time I try to summarize how things actually function in my school district, I get this sudden, overwhelming urge to just pack up everything we have here by 3 p.m. and blast our resumes to companies across Europe. For now, I’m holding myself back because of other commitments—you know, family, sports, hanging out with friends—but strictly because I made a solemn vow to give it my absolute all to move abroad for college the second I graduate high school.