My most vivid memory of high school involves the annual meeting that I had with the school counsellor at the large public school that I attended.<\/p>\n
Each student met with the counsellor for about fifteen minutes to check on the student\u2019s progress and discuss their career plans. I was pulled from my math class (bonus!) to see the counsellor. This man didn\u2019t know me; there were over a thousand students; but he was waiting for me and scanning some official-looking documents when I entered his office.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Mr. Bakker, what is it you want to do when you graduate?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Truthfully, I had no clue but my parents had always said that I should go to university so\u2026\u201cI\u2019m going to university!<\/em>\u201d I said hopefully.<\/p>\n Without looking up from the papers he was scanning he said, \u201cAre you sure that there isn\u2019t some other option that you would enjoy?<\/em>\u201d Followed by, \u201cHow would you feel about (enter some mundane job here)?<\/em>\u201d I wasn\u2019t sure what he was getting at, but it started to sink in soon enough.<\/p>\n As a student, I wasn\u2019t exactly setting the world on fire. Actually, I was working a long way below my potential (as my parents never failed to point out). I can\u2019t really remember the rest of the conversation and soon enough I was back in my math class.<\/p>\n On the way home, our meeting started to stir something vaguely unsettling in me. It began to eat at me.\u00a0Did he say that I didn\u2019t have what it takes to succeed in university?<\/strong><\/span> Did he say I would fail or not get in?\u00a0 Did he say I was STUPID? This led to \u201cI\u2019ll show him!\u201d<\/p>\n I immediately set about plotting my revenge for the pain his words had caused. My plan ended up something like this: I was going to improve my grades, get into university, get a degree and take it back to school. I was then going to barge into his office, degree in hand, and stick it\u2026Anyway, I was on a mission!\u00a0<\/p>\n Step 1: Improve the grades. I wasn\u2019t sure how you were supposed to do this buy I was struck by a novel idea. What if I studied and did my homework? Sounds crazy but it could work!<\/p>\n I devised a schedule which had me working in my room for one hour before and after dinner EVERY DAY! I didn\u2019t tell my parents about my plan and they were concerned about my secretive bedroom behaviour. <\/strong><\/span>Was I smoking drugs? Anyway, my plan worked. My grades went up dramatically and I did get into UBC.<\/p>\n Upon graduating with a degree in biology, I determined to make good on my plan. I can really hold a grudge! I showed up at my old school with degree in hand. I asked the receptionist if I could speak with my old counsellor. She gave me a puzzled look and said, \u201cHe passed away last year.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n I eventually recovered but later in my teaching career, an interesting thing happened. I was speaking with a student in my senior biology class. She wasn\u2019t the most gifted student and I asked her about her future plans. She said that she wanted to be a doctor. I tried to help. I suggested that there are many medically-related careers that she would likely have greater success in. I tried to point her in a direction that made sense to ME. She didn\u2019t say much when she left the room.<\/p>\n Hmm\u2026you\u2019d think I should have known better\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My most vivid memory of high school involves the annual meeting that I had with the school counsellor at the large public school that I attended. Each student met with the counsellor for about fifteen minutes to check on the student\u2019s progress and discuss their career plans. I was pulled from my math class (bonus!) […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":2727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,35],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-2720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-secondary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2720"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=2720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}I’ll Show Him<\/span><\/h2>\n
A Novel Idea<\/span><\/h2>\n