by
lee954
@ 22 Oct. 2005 - 07:21:25
...listening to the advice of my parents and teachers and staying on at school until I was eighteen. I should have got a job at the earliest opportunity, no matter how lowly or demeaning it might have been. At sixteen there's no shame in being on the bottom rung of the ladder; at least you've already got something to hold on to.
Of course, my mum was the one pushing for me to stay on in education. She should have gone to grammar school herself, but had to get a job to help financially support the family. So...she attempted to re-live her life through her children by sharing in our experiences of further education.
Having been brought up in an isolated, insular mining village I so desperately needed to break free and experience life in the outside world, working and interacting with people from more varied backgrounds whilst picking up those valuable life skills which I still lack. But, once you've made the decision to sit your A-levels it's assumed you're then going to go to university and pursue everything that follows. It's very difficult applying for jobs when you're eighteen and all the competition is sixteen, and due to the graduated pay scales any potential employer is required to pay you significantly higher wages for someone who is academically over-qualified for the job, and thus is perceived as being a likely source of instability in the workplace.
So that's how I began my adult life.
SEASONING
Autumn cries a lot
Her rusty madness wails.
Uninvited winter hails
A ruddy rupture lies fallow.
MICROSCOPIC DETAIL
All snowflakes
Are six-sided stars.
Standing outside
The old rabbi
Gathers his flock.
CHANGE OF SCENERY
Love lies dormant
Cuckoo calls
Still and silent
Shadows stir.