A Teacup Full of Stories

Why I Hate Exams:

There are some thing in life,

Inescapable things, required, necessary,

Crucial, fundamental,

Unavoidable

Things; like,

Exams at school, that you have to attend, have to take

Have to revise for, have

To do well in,

Have to sit in a cold seat in a crowded room stuffed full of silence,

Ready to explode with the anxiety of paper being turned over,

Chewed pens, creased foreheads,

Dripping sweat,

An air-conditioning system that’s too hot

Or too loud, or too cold,

Frantically trying to spill out from your head

All the information hammered in like nails behind your eyes,

Scribbling out lines until your wrists ache, glancing at a clock,

Your watch, that ticks past

Faster than it has ever done before, but that’s

Not the worst of it.

No,

The worst is sitting inside on a summer’s day,

Staring blankly at a screen dusted with fingerprints

That you can’t summon the energy to clean,

Highlighter poised, nib out, ready,

For just long enough for the ink to start to dry

Before you drag your eyes across the words on the page,

Never organizing an event or a date,

Or a meet up with your mates because

You know you all have to be working,

But,

The anxiety and the procrastination all work against you, until,

The clock strikes 8 in the evening and it’s 12 hours

Since you woke up and

You’ve done nothing at all of note,

Of worth,

And, you know,

That come July when it’s all over and you all chuck

Your notes to the sky,

Dance in each others arms that one last time before

You all depart your separate ways to better things,

You’ll finally be having the time of your Life –

But, first, you have to get through today.

And tomorrow. And the next.

And 7 exams in a month’s time, and it

Doesn’t help,

Knowing how happy you’ll be then, when

You can’t even find the energy to

Pick up your pen.