A Latte with Half Sugar and Light Ice
Every time I’ve gone somewhere with my friends, somehow, we end up at a coffee or tea place. I usually never want something to drink beforehand, but the chain reaction of everyone getting something cascades, and before I know it, my AMEX is out, and some latte is in my hand. If anyone asks me what kind of bubble tea I like, I’ll say brown sugar with light ice and 75% sugar because that’s what my friends get.
The hive mind mentality is low key taking over, and I’m going to be honest; I am so sick of everything.
I don’t know if it’s because SAT scores are released at the end of this week, or if midterms are creeping up on me a bit too quickly, or if just the overhead of college applications being something I actually have to worry about now are all getting to me, but it’s happening. The environment around us, especially as Juniors—an ironic name as the reality of college and the working world is finally reaching us—is affecting our perception of self, putting a higher value on things that maybe don’t matter as much.
Baddawi is a graphic novel about a kid stuck in the in-between of the war and trying to keep a sense of normalcy in his life. Although many scenes of this novel stuck out to me, none really affected me as much as the children throwing things at each other during recess. This scene described recess, a time for a break of fun, as “war.” I can't help but think about how our school has become war, too. I really don’t know when it changed, how in the span of four years I went to 10 days of party at the end of school, to counting the days until the weekend so I could have more than 7 hours to study for whatever’s next. Watching my peers and friends doing so much more than I am to achieve greatness really has made school a war of who will get that Ivy admission, who will become a successful doctor, or who will get that prized 1550+ on the SAT. Watching the clubs fill up, medals from DECA districts, 5’s on almost all of their AP exams, I feel as if I need to do more just to have a fighting chance.
I don’t know where I'll go from here, but when I go out with my friends for coffee, I’ll gulp down the latte just to catch up.
Your description of high school as some sort of battle zone is an underlying idea that I hate to agree with. With every achievement or good grade, we are unknowingly fighting with each other for future success. It’s kind of weird that high school convinces teens that we should ultimately be at war with each other. I also really enjoyed how your piece looped back to the coffee from the beginning, it’s good storytelling.
ReplyDeleteJumana! I really like how you made that comparison between the competition in Troy high and war. I completely agree with the feeling of being forced to do things just because everyone else is. I think everyone is just on a race and sometimes it really does feel like I'm falling behind. I also love your end line, "I'll gulp down the latte just to catch up." It honestly kind of encompasses how I feel about many things at school.
ReplyDeleteI agree that growing up and competing with others is kind of like a warzone. It doesn’t make sense why we have to think so individualistically, when we really need to cooperate to get by in the world. The line “I’ll gulp down the latte just to catch up” sometimes feels more like choking down the responsibilities we brought on ourselves from this competition.
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