Well, yesterday I graduated from Fifth Form. I am now officially unemployed. For those of you who don't know Fifth Form is the equivalent of sophomore year. Students are between 15 and 16 years of age (although we had an eighteen year old in ours *snickers*). They sit a set of exams and receive a school-leaving certificate. Legally speaking this is the end of formal education for most. One can continue on to do Sixth Form which is two years of studying at a higher level followed by another set of exams. After that is university.

I now have a little bit of paper with fancy calligraphy on it saying I have completed 12 years of schooling (7 at primary and 5 at secondary level), a sterling silver ring with my school's crest on it and a school shirt with signatures of my classmates on it.

My school had a ceremony for us yesterday, we have a graduation dance on July 2nd (which I'm not sure I want to go to) and finally in October after the new term has started and we have received our exam results we will return to school for the 'Achievement Day' during which our individual performances in the exams will be acknowledged (as in who passed five subjects, who passed six, etc.).

Our graduation song - I guess that's what it would be called - was [tbi], based on the theme 'The Dawn of a New Day'.

Like all graduations it was a very sappy affair with lots of autograph trading and pictures with classes and parents and friends. Speeches and dances and poems and songs.

In the end, I guess I am a little sad. Mostly, it hasn't set in I don't think. I should go on about how this is bitter-sweet and such poetic terms. I don't really want to though. Perhaps later.

Right now, I'm thinking about the fact that I really have a say in what comes next. I get to choose what I want to do in Sixth Form and even where I go to Sixth Form. After that I choose universities. It's a scary thought actually. And it stresses me out quite a but considering that the university which I am attracted to probably has lower standards than I can achieve and that I should shoot higher. The idea of growing up and turning 16 is frightening. (Heh, Peter Pan syndrome. I love Peter Pan though. Excellent book.)

In closing, I'm thankful to all the teachers who have taken me from pre-school through to now. Even though you've scared me, annoyed me, bored me and chastised me, you've also had the patience to sit through every day and make sure I could reach this point. All the friends I've had since day one, even those with whom I never really became that close, it's been wonderful to know you.

The next stage in life is upon me. I've finished being sappy, you can stop laughing.