27 March 2007

A trip down memory lane

Today I did something rather odd. I went back to my old secondary school for a trip down memory lane. My father is friends with my old headteacher, so I thought I would pop in and pay him a visit.
Sadly, he was away on a meeting, so I gained a visitor badge and had a wander around my old school to catch up with some of my old teachers.
My area is not renowned for encouraging teenagers to head to university, or even college, so I felt it would be nice to show them that some of us have done well for ourselves (Ok, I wanted to brag, so shoot me).
The problem when I was in school, was that not every teacher encouraged me to chase my dreams. I always knew I wanted to be a doctor (or paramedic), but I was told by one teacher that I was from the wrong part of the country and the wrong background (because although my parents own their own business, they aren't from affluent backgrounds and didn't go to university) to become a doctor.
Sadly today I didn't manage to catch up with that particular teacher (which is probably a good thing), although it was nice to catch up with my old science teachers, who are pleased that they managed to inspire some level of interest in their subject!
It was an interesting trip down memory lane, and something that I don't regret doing.
Interestingly, when I was in school I was absolutely appalling at woodwork/metal work/resistant materials and just couldn't construct anything straight (I would like to add that this has now changed considerably, and I can now build flat pack furniture exceedingly well.)
With this is mind, I took great delight in visiting my old woodwork teacher today (who is still a friend of my father) and telling him that I wanted to be an orthopaedic surgeon and use proper tools. It took me a good 3 minutes to stop him from laughing....

1 comment:

Phoenix said...

Ah, I remember visiting my old school when I was a medical student. My deputy head insisted I'd picked up an accent (I hadn't!)

As an A-level student I decided against doing a bog-standard research project and instead invented my own which involved filling the lab fridge with something rather disgusting. Fortunately the exam board loved my project, and kept it as a sample. From that year on they also provided a synthetic alternative to the rather smelly materials I'd been using.

My science teacher introduced me as 'This is Phoenix, who invented the [smelly material] project!' She must have made me out to be some sort of mythical creature because all the schoolkids acted well impressed, and all wanted to ask me about it. It was a bit embarrassing but very funny.