EXAMS. One five letter word that strikes fear and anxiety into the hearts of students worldwide. Luckily for me, 34 days have elapsed since my final exam of the year.
I do empathise and sympathise with my fellow students whom are still in examination purgatory, constantly regurgitating all the information that they have consumed over the course of the year onto a bland and unfeeling examination paper.
Such examination papers will then be sent off, and eventually make their way to the desk of a bored, over-worked and probably over-caffeinated examiner; whom, after a few hours, is most likely questioning their decision to agree to mark papers for some extra money.
Simultaneously, they might be pondering on whether acquiring a cheese grater to rub against their foreheads would be a less painful endeavour than marking the exam papers that are sprawled out in front of them.
During exams, there is an implied sense of liberty, once your studying perils come to an end. Students will take the time to count down the end of their exams to the millisecond.
Once over, we imagine that we will find some awe-inspiring mountain peek to rejoice upon (Lion King style) as we gloriously toss our countless examination notes into the wind, while cherubs and shafts of light fall down from the heavens. However, this feeling of boundless and well-earned freedom is very short-lived.
Unfortunately, instead of stepping back and looking at what we’ve achieved; we set new goals, new objectives, new dreams and new hurdles, because as human beings we are always reaching towards something ‘better’.
Returning to school after exams, it is made abundantly clear that the painstaking work that burned you out during exams; must be outdone. You’ve done well, now do better. You’ve got good grades, now get better ones. You’ve spent your life studying, now spend your after-life studying.
As humans we are flawed because we see achieving our goals as the light at the end of the tunnel. When in reality, instead of basking in the glow of what we’ve achieved; we set new goals, extending the tunnel and driving that light further and further away.
