The Next Chapter: VI - Back to Square One (2007 - 2008)

After saying our final farewells, it was back to square one with 2007 marking the beginning of high school education. Yep, another six years of schooling was left ahead of me. 

“The Next Chapter” is a series of eight blog posts which will be posted during a period of eight days, reflecting on the first 18 years of my life. Also, building up to the big 18th birthday (which is just around the corner) on the 12th of January.

2007 and 2008 were just like 2000 and 2001. They were the years were I made new friendships at my new school. Some of my friends from primary school remained my friends during high school, which was a little comforting, but I guess I wanted to make new friends as well. As they all say, high school was completely different to primary school. The locker systems, the timetables, the expectations were much different to those at primary school. 

I don’t really remember much of 2007 and 2008, nor do I have much photos to look back at during that period to remind myself what had happened, so I’m just gonna take a stab in the dark and say that those two years were pretty average, and was smooth sailing. I mean, I didn’t get suspended or win any awards at school. I guess I was the ‘silent achiever’ who didn’t want to me recognized during high school. The driving force may have been the different environment I was in, since I’ve become used to a primary school setting for so long.

I also remember joining the swimming squad in 2007, and realized that I wasn’t as fast as I thought I was. I guess the asthma got to me back then. But I persisted and a heap of 6am training sessions and competitions later, I was down and out at the end of 2008. I was also forced to quit swimming lessons at the end of 2008 because of my local pools shutting down for long-term renovations. I was pretty much un-motivated to swim competitively from then.

2007 also marked the start of our yearly family trips along the coast. We went to Apollo Bay for the Christmas period, and we went to Phillip Island in 2008. Not real far from our home, but at least it was somewhere! It was great to spend the week with the family, especially when we were all so busy with work and school.

Next in “The Next Chapter”: VII - Independency and Rebellion (2009 - 2010) 

Previous “The Next Chapter” posts:
V - Final Farewells (2005 - 2006)
IV - Old Habits Live On (2003 - 2004)
III - Almost Smooth Sailing (2001 - 2002)
II - A Whole New Beginning (1999 - 2000)
I - A Gift from God (1995 - 1998)