An ode to IB (some mental musings on the goods and bads)
I made some of the best friends I will ever have.
I never got to see anyone who isn't in IB. Ever.
There is an IB family, because we are all in this together.
Anyone not in the program assumed we were some creepy cult.
I was challenged to think in ways I never had to before.
If I have to think up another knowledge question I might just die.
I can now write crazy long essays in crazy short amounts of time.
There were tears. Lots and lots of tears.
My knowledge of things in general has greatly increased.
It is often difficult to remember those things due to sleep deprivation.
My GPA looks awesome.
I got to listen to other people complain about not having an awesome GPA.
CAS forced me to get out there and try new things.
Building a snowman counts as CAS right?
I am now much more confident in vocalizing my opinions.
The oral exams nearly killed me.
Time management has become an essential part of life.
I still don't manage time and stress is a non-stop feeling.
TOK forced me to think outside the box.
What is the box? How do we know if we are every truly within the limits of it?
IB teachers are awesome.
Teachers actually hate us and assign all assignment to be due the same day.
It's only two years.
It's two very long years.
The IB program was one of the biggest decisions I've had to make in my short life (aside from choosing where to go to college). Even with all of the negatives to outweigh the positives, if I were given the choice to go back and make the decision again with the knowledge I have now, I would still choose it again. That does not by any means mean that I want to keep going, IB was cool but let's be real, I am so ready for college.
Okay, this is probably one of the best things I have ever read. I can relate to every one of these lines on a deep, personal level. I think it's awesome how you decided to do a free-verse poem (with some rhyming in there). It just as accurately reflects these past two years, and poetry is awesome (sometimes). This is probably getting too deep but this poem sort of goes along with the fact that we hate IB, but we would also do it all over again if we could/had to. In your poem, I found that you contradicted the previous line with the next, which reflects that love-hate relationship. Great job, Nat! I can't believe it's coming to an end!
ReplyDeleteI can't deal with all these posts because they are all just so perfect in summarizing the IB Experience. The entire thing is a contradiction, which is perfect because IB in itself is a contradiction starting with ToK.
ReplyDeleteNat, there are a couple things I'm going to remember about you. One is that I never had a class with you in four years, which is really disappointing because I feel like I missed out on an awesome person. That being said, I am really happy that I got to know you these past couple of months and practice has definitely been fun (Who knew I would be a high jumper?).
The second thing I'm going to remember is how you're always in a great mood. You're so uplifting, even when the perils of IB is weighing down on you, you somehow managed to talk about doing IA's in a positive voice, even if what you were saying was definitely not positive. I wish you all the best at UNC, and I know we'll keep in touch!