Okay, something has been bothering me. This is the first and last time I will vent about it. So at my school, we have an involved AP program.
But that's not the issue. Actually, it's wonderful. This might sound strange, but I love learning. I love being in a classroom and I love challenging myself both mentally and artistically. So my freshman and sophomore years, I worked my ass off in art class. I slaved over each project and pushed myself to new heights, and lows. Because of this, I've realized how bad I am and how good I can become. You know the saying you are wise when you realize you know nothing? So true. And because of my hard work, my teacher thought I would be ready for AP Art my junior year. It's a course designed for seniors and I acquired special permission to take the class a year early as a junior. I was the only junior in this class this past year. I was so happy. I made that class my number one priority the whole school year and consequently, I got an A both semesters. So when recruiting for next year's AP class came around, my teacher entrusted me with scouting for to-be-juniors I thought were capable of taking the course and succeeding as I did. I went and palled around with some of the sophomores in my hour (it's always fourth for the AP class and sometimes other upper level art classes meet in the same area). Some were chatting with me about what they wanted to do with their talent. One had her heart set on taking AP as a junior, like me. She was rather talented. She knew what she was doing. I mentioned her to my teacher as a possible candidate. I guess another sophomore girl overheard our conversation. She suddenly got it in her head that sucking up to me would win her points. I loathe suck-ups. Not only do I loathe suck-ups, but this girl didn't want to take the class to challenge herself or improve what-so-ever. She wanted the 6.0 added to her GPA. I wanted to strangle her. I told her no. No way was she getting into this course, for which she was totally unprepared. And when I tried to explain that she wasn't ready, she didn't let me get a word in and started accusing me of being pretentious. I might have been acting a bit pretentious, but after the scene she made, the teacher agreed with me that she wasn't ready. If she was, she would have listened to what we had to say. So I get my AP summer work letter and e-mail list a couple of days ago. This girl's name is on it. I contacted my teacher right away and he said she went behind our backs and got her councilor's permission, which overrules the teacher's at my school (which is a broken system, if you ask me). So now, I have to work with this girl who is motivated by all the wrong reasons. I don't want her to fail, which she will if she doesn't understand how to get better. She wasn't ready in the first place, so I don't see how she can improve on her own in the three months of summer. Our class meets twice during break, but both times I will be out of country, and have already cleared things with my teachers. So I won't be able to see her "progress" until the school year starts. It just saddens me to see how far College Board has fallen. I know it's a business, but soon they'll be something like Pre-graduate program because AP will be the new general studies in high schools. Thank God I'm done in less than a year. Someone, please tell me: what happened to challenging ones self? It feels like I was born in the wrong era. Everything is so easy and overdone. I'm trying to broaden my horizons, but with the recession and modern responsibilities, it's much harder than, let's say, in Huck Finn's time. Why can't I build a raft and disappear down the Mississippi? Oh, because my parents would call out the National Guard to recover me. Well, one day, I don't want to be recovered. I'm going be the guy (although in girl form) in Into the Wild, except I'm going to live. Adios, el mundo loco. | 
