What I Could've Amounted To

You know, sometimes I wonder what life could've been like if I never chose the academic route. Like, what would I have chosen if I could live life again?
To me there are 5 different types of student. I'm sure if you think hard enough, you can classify each student one or two of the following categories:

• Academic - The ones with a high level of retained knowledge; going on to be scientists or other respected personell in their field.
  
• Artistic - The ones with a high level of creativity; going on to be artists in the fields of art, music and drama.
  
• Athletic - The ones with a high level of physical endurance; going on to be sportspeople or coaches.
  
• Associalistic - The ones with a high level of confidence; going on to be councellors or part of politics.
  
• Anarchistic - The ones with a high level of rebellion; going on to be criminals or similar. We'll leave it at that.

I'm already a high academic type, so we'll skip that one and explore the other options. We'll skip artistic too, we'll come back to that. Next up is athletic. Anyone that knows me knows that I have a minimal sense of athletic-ism, I do get exercise, but I don't force myself. If I have to walk about 40 minutes return to get to and from school, whatever. But what would happen if I devoted my life to sport? Well, I'd be in much better physical shape. Not that I'm complaining about my current weight; it's fine, but sometimes I just wish I didn't need to suck in half the time, you know? But what would the academic record be like? I mean sure, I could run anywhere fast and feel fine physically and mentally, but if I was that devoted how would I learn anything?

The next path: Associalistic. Also known as the 'popular crowd' at school. Every learning institution has one. Don't lie, they do. You'll notice eventually. Cliques, as they call them now, look out for each other, and don't exactly care for many others. A high associalistic person will, though; going out of their way to guide others in the right direction, and easily the next prom/ball/social king or queen. Or both. Easily the pick for Head Boy/Girl, they get along with everyone with their charisma. But surely this comes at a price? With so much time with other people, you're bound to get ahead, but how does one start? My answer? Primary school. It's like the Japanese school system: Student from prestigious high school moves on to prestigious univeristy; this translates to a popular kid at primary school becomes a popular kid at college. How does the life cycle start, though? I have three ideas. Firstly, you may need to be 'chosen'. Someone takes you under their wing and bring you into their group, and that's the fast track to popularity in the later world. Secondly, you may need and older sibling that knows enough people to be associalistic as well. But how did they get there? It's a life cycle. Or is it? Which brings us to option three...
The third possibility is money. Noticed how most advertisements for toys and that on the T.V. are aimed at ten-ish year olds? That's the peak of the pester years, the parents are practically shelling out money each month for the next big thing, just to stay in the popularity business. Glad I was never part of that... much...

The last path listed: Anarchistic. Please. How does someone that mucks around during college and drops out fter a year or so get a well-paying job? Huh? Apart from apprenticeships, that's different - no, I'm talking about the ones that don't seem to care about what's being taught. What are they going to do later in life? I'm not even gonna think about why I didn't choose this path.

Back to the Artistic path. Personally, I am uber-jealous of all those people out there that can draw complex charcters with ease. You wanna know the best I can do? Just some blobs that generally act out scenes speechless. Meanwhile you have the Eastern culture boom and now practically every fifth-ish person can draw something similar to something you'd find in a Japanese cartoon. That's more than you think. How about this path? Well, the artistic path is certainly tailor-made for people to be pleased with what you've done. You draw them a picture, it makes them smile. You show someone why ice floats, they try and act interested. See the difference?

If I had the chance (or time, for that matter), I would do my best to cover all paths (apart from Anarchistic, for obvious reasons), and get a much better balance going. After all, there is no such thing as a perfectly balanced student, but I could've certainly tried to come close...

The Weekend Watch
A bit of nostalgia today.