The first friend I made was a girl named Tess, who shared a buddy with me. For the first two weeks we followed this girl around, neither of us speaking (shocking if you know us), until somehow we mutually decided to go off together and do our own thing. Good choice. I've made most of my friends like that, just through some shared idea or dislike of other girls we were surrounded by and I ended up with a group of friends that I've kept all these years. So my method must work.
The first three years of going to this school for me are mostly forgotten, mainly because I hated school and spent most of my days hanging out with older friends and watching films. I had some of the best nights of my life spent sitting on the floor of Blockbusters in Maroubra with friends, until they told us they were closing and we really had to leave. We would get pizza on the way home, laughing and eating, while we walked back to my house to spend a night watching stupid films. Those were the best of times.
The worst of times were when I was completely out of my depth and did not understand any of the rather elitist topics that were being mentioned by my peers. Weird names of other grammar schools I would never have heard of, people living in places I certainly had never visited and even people talking about their trips abroad, that just did not happen in my family! A trip into the city was considered an absolute treasure, since it seemed like such a long way away from my home.
Even worse than feeling rather excluded, because eventually I got over all that rubbish when I found like-minded friends, was having teachers that obviously had a problem with you. Teachers really can make or break your experiences in school. I have a personal record of being told off by three teachers within five minutes, which was within the first hour of school. There is one particular teacher I had that I will never forget, but for all the wrong reasons. Every time I saw her or had class with her, she always had something to say to me, such as "Do you ever stop talking Georgia? I don't think you do," or "Do you do anything apart from watching TV?" and my personal favourite, directed at my friend Laura and myself, "You know, I tried to integrate you girls into the form group, but you're both such social outcasts." I really have no idea why she started teaching, but it's a bit late now for her to find a new career. Pity.
Not all teachers were like that, the majority of the ones I had I didn't particularly care for, but a few of them were fantastic. Considering my last year and a half at school was spent quite ill, for reasons I've already covered, I had a lot more exposure outside of the class room to my teachers than I had ever had before. I got to see how compassionate some of them are and most importantly, how human and relatable they are. As a student, it's a very odd thing to consider that your teachers may have a life outside of school, so actually talking to them like you would any other person is quite revealing and highly enjoyable (only if they're interesting, if not, don't bother). If a teacher starts chatting to you about Doctor Who, roll with it, because that's not an opportunity to be missed!
I had a lovely art teacher, who would always smile at me when I came to class on a bad day and even let me sleep because I just could not keep my eyes open. I remember once she pulled me out of class, I was quite upset and sickly at the time, to comfort me and calm my nerves about a test I had after recess, which I just didn't think I could do. I think that was the closest point I ever reached to breaking down in front of one of my teachers (I tried very hard not to). When I went to go and sit my test after recess, I was told by my ancient history teacher that I didn't have to do it, that he could see I wasn't up for it. I later found out my art teacher had sought him out and spoken to him about me, which only made me even more fond of her and I thought I was so lucky to be taught by someone like that. I still consider myself so lucky, things could have been a lot worse for me if I didn't have people like that to care for me during that period of my life. Even if I didn't fully appreciate it then, I most certainly do now.
I read three years worth of online journal entries to write this blog and have barely scratched the surface, but I think I said the most important things. I could have told you all about my hair dying antics, bad skin, horrendous love of Gloria Jean's Iced chocolate (shudder) and all my angsty moments. I didn't though, because all of those things are to be expected, they were my teenage years after all! I had some of the best times of my life, laughing and tripping up and down the Chapel stairs and just generally being with my group of friends, friends I still have. If I wanted to write about all of that, I would be here all night and you lot reading this would definitely fall asleep.
Sometimes I really don't know what the hell I was thinking (apart from my bright green Docs, they still rock!) and I definitely don't know why I said some of the things I did (especially to my teachers, my bad), but in hindsight it wasn't all that bad. It could have been a lot worse. I got the best friends a person could have out of it and was not completely traumatised by my teachers (I've heard stories). I was definitely lucky, at least for a good seventy percent of the time.
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