My alarm clock rings and I wake up with a jolt. It’s so damn early, I can barely open my eyes. I press the snooze button, turn over in complete denial and drift right back to sleep. Minutes later the alarm goes off again. This time I force myself out of bed. I shower, get dressed, do my make up and run out the door, skipping breakfast again. How is it possible to be slightly late every morning, despite getting up on time? Thankfully the bus comes quickly, and I make it.
The wrath of a chemistry teacher in the morning is nothing you want to experience regularly. It seems as if each teacher has the unreasonable notion that their very subject is the most important one, and coming late is a personal insult. I sit through the undecipherable lecture, half sleeping whilst on Tumblr on my laptop. The joy of free Wi-Fi!
More science follows, both physics and biology, and finally math. I end at 4.30, and drag myself home. But the question is, why would one put oneself through such hell every day? Why choose to sit in school from 8.20 till 4.30, 5 days a week, learning about vector quantities, molar ratios and trigonometry. Why not take Social Science instead, go to an easier school, or even drop out? The answer is simple. No matter how much we complain about ridiculous teachers, late hours and disgusting food, we secretly enjoy our time at school, at least a little bit.
The few students in Stockholm that each year graduate from 9th grade with top marks, and continue to KG Natural Science, are of course a very specific group of people. These students have somehow managed to get an “MVG” in pretty much everything. How? People have different techniques. Some give up on having a personal life, a fashion sense and even personal hygiene. A fortunate few manage without these drastic measures, simply by going to an easier school, and sucking up to teachers for years and years. Whatever the strategy is, they all end up in the same place, young and motivated and thirsty for knowledge. This motivation doesn’t last more than a few weeks of course, but even as the months drag on, these strange science oriented creatures (including myself) choose to stay. Why? Because we like the challenge. And the parties.