I have two recurrent nightmares in my adulthood. One involves forgetting to feed my dog for weeks and months before realising it has staved and become scrawny. It's a rather odd dream considering I've never actually looked after any sort of pet in real life (or have I really forgotten them?).
My other recurring nightmare is dreading our entire class fail our Year 12 English exams. That dream is somewhat easier to interpret - I went to an all-boys high school. Our year 12 English teacher was an inspiring and passionate woman, but boys and Shakespeare were a difficult mix at that age. I remembered our whole class "read" 'Macbeth' that year largely through watching the BBC movie version.
In the end, disaster didn't eventuate. I don't remember anyone in our class actually failing, and I even got into law school. But I've often wondered why Year 12 assessments still stay on people's minds many years afterwards. I think subconsciously, even half a lifetime later, anxieties from the Higher School Certificate are still buried deep within and won't go away easily.
Thousands of Year 12 students will begin their HSC and VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) exams this month (and equivalents in other states), and no doubt will go through similar nerve-racking experiences. With studies showing more and more students experiencing severe mental anxieties, here's what I would've told my 17-year-old self doing the HSC with the benefit of hindsight now:
It's not quite true you only get one stab in life at this. Yes, the competition to get into law school will certainly be fierce, but there are more ways to skin a cat. Once in uni, you'll meet quite a few students who have actually transferred from other courses. These people worked hard during first year uni while everyone else partied, and they attained the marks to transfer into what they originally missed out on. In many cases, they didn't even lose any time as there were often common subjects everyone had to do in first year anyway.
You'll also be joined by some strange-looking students often wearing business suits in class. They are called post graduates (they loath the term mature-aged students). These older and wiser heads (who sit in the front row at every lecture relentlessly taking notes) show us actually, there's always a second chance to study later in life if you're committed.
It's a myth that a good HSC score automatically guarantees you success later at uni and a future career. Some people you meet at uni will have some of the highest entrance scores in the State, but they can totally bomb-out over the next few years. Some of them aced 4 Unit maths and science, which scaled their marks well in the HSC. But they can struggle with the massive amounts of reading, research and writing at uni.
Uni exams and assessments are quite different to high school - there's less spoon feeding and more personal discipline involved. Some will regret they only studied law (or medicine) because it's what their (Asian) parents wanted.
In any case, a few years down the track, Year 12 marks are hardly looked at again by prospective employers when you're applying for a graduate job. By then, soft skills, emotional intelligence, and being a team player will separate those who land work quickly, and those still searching. Most employers will pick candidates who have solid practical life experiences (even if acquired from working at the local café or supermarket) over those who are just book-smart.
Here's another thought - even if everything goes your way and you get into that favourite uni course, and you're hired for that great job you think you've always wanted, there's still a chance you're in the wrong vocation. During law school, all of your friends will think there's nothing better than working in a top-tier corporate law firm. All of the glossy marketing material found at career expos seemed convincing enough. But when you finally end up there as a graduate, you might find it isn't your life passion after all. Because there's a thing called time sheets and 6-minute billable hours - the bane of most lawyers' existence.
You should read Richard Beasley's novel 'Hell Has Harbour Views', set in a Sydney law firm. Unfortunately, harbour views aren't always included - you might find yourself working around the clock in a windowless data room for weeks and weeks buried in paper over some corporate merger transaction and writing "due diligence" reports (alongside fellow monkeys on typewriters).
Within a few years, all but two of your fellow 20 graduates who joined the firm will have left for other jobs, and in many cases, for entirely different careers. But you'll eventually figure out where your true passion lies.
So, 17-year-old self, by all means do your best. But life has a habit of throwing up odd twists and surprises, instead of following the straightforward path predicted by the computer program in the Year 12 career adviser's office. And while the Year 12 exams might capture one's abilities and interests as a snapshot at one moment in time, it doesn't need to define the rest of your career, much less the rest of your life.
One more thing: the Y2K millennium bug. It's not quite the end of the world either, so don't follow your friends into burning all your uni books and papers.
is a former deputy mayor in the City of Ryde and has been an independent local government councillor since 2008. He is also editor of , sharing stories of people from multicultural Eastwood in Sydney's North West.
