SCHOOL YEARS THE BEST: Kaleah Blowes.
It was the end of an era for year 12 students last week as they finished their final days of school. They say school days are the best in your life. That wasn’t the case for all Orange students.
Central Western Daily reporter Nicole Kuter caught up with three students to talk about life after the safety blanket of school was removed.
Canobolas Rural Technology High School student Amy Crosby said there is no love lost.
“I never really enjoyed school that much,” she said.
Amy said the constant pressure of assignments, exams, major works and strict hours was an aspect of school life she was glad to be rid of. She thinks university will be different.
“They whole way you study seems so different,” she said.
Amy is looking forward to making her own timetable and choosing the hours she spends studying. She is looking into veterinary science at university.
Amy admitted school wasn’t all bad. She said she will miss the friendships she formed.
“We’ll all try and keep in contact I think,” she said.
Her last days of schools will be ones to remember. She said leaving school hadn’t kicked in yet.
“It was kind of exciting and a bit sad as well,” she said.
“It’s all we’ve known the last six years.”
She admitted she was nervous about the big wide world but couldn’t hold in the excitement about the future.
“I don’t know, I think it will be a bit strange at first.”
Orange High School student Kaleah Blowes told a different story.
She was devastated to be leaving school. She thinks her school years were the best years she’ll have.
“I love school, I don’t want to leave,” she said.
Kaleah is nervous about leaving the safety of school and venturing into the unknown. She said it will be an adjustment not getting out of bed every week day and donning the black and gold uniform.
“It will be a bit weird, it’s been such a big part of my life,” she said.
She said she’d love to stay at school forever.
“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” she said.
“I’ll cope but I’ll miss it.”
Kaleah plans to take a year off after the Higher School Certificate. She said she will probably travel overseas.
She has reservations about leaving the safety of the old school yard. She is not looking forward to the exams.
“I think I am confident and everything but yeah we’ll see,” she said.
Like Amy, Kaleah will miss her friends the most.
“I’ll miss them a lot, not seeing them every day will be really hard.”
Orange Christian School student Kaitlyn Chapman-Mortimer hopes her schools days are not the best in her life.
She said she is glad it’s over.
“I’ll miss the people but not really the concept of school,” she said.
Kaitlyn said it was the people that made her school years worthwhile.
“I won’t miss the work and the teachers’ lectures,” she said.
She said she might feel a little nostalgic after the HSC is all over.
“I think it will sink in a bit more when the exams are over,” she said.
“Wait till the end of November and then I might feel a bit different.”
Kaitlyn wants to study psychology at university. She thinks university will be far better than school.
“Well I’m from a small school and I’m going to a big uni,” she said.
“I’m really looking forward to getting to know lots of different people.”
Kaitlyn’s only regret from school is that she should have studied more consistently.
“It’s the people not the school that make it,” she said.
“You get really close with your friends.
“It was really good in that way.”