I'm won't, but Adele Horan writes in defence of Schoolies Week HERE. She says of those who won't go:Unless your Year 12 son or daughter is ...
- a strong-minded non-conformist,
- a loner,
- a Christian,
- or a super-nerd...
... chances are that some time soon they will pop the question.['Can I go to Schoolies?']
What do you make of that list?
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12 comments:
I didn't go to Schoolies in 06 when it was my year, but probably because I'm all 4 of those things.
How about 'broke'?
Back in 2000, I simply didn't see any point in doing without internet fora.
I'm with Michael C. I was too poor to go on schoolies.
I think it's unfair to lump loners, strong minded non conformists and super nerds in with Christians. ;)
Is that a picture of Dave Moore?
whether she's right or wrong, it's sad that Christians aren't viewed as people who party with sinners.
I didn't go on schoolies in '96 when it was my year and like Luke C all 4 of those descriptive labels could probably have been applied to me. But I definitely wouldn't say that each of those factors was responsible for my not having gone on schoolies.
I think the main reason why I didn't go on schoolies was probably that I was a bit of a loner: I was never popular in high school and didn't have any really close friends. No-one who was going on schoolies would ever think of inviting me to join them and I'm sure that if I'd asked anyone who was thinking of going I wouldn't have got any positive replies. And the people I hung out with at school (those whom you might loosely call "friends") weren't really interested in going on schoolies. That's about it really. The fact that I was a Christian (quite a new one -- I became a Christian in Year 12), a nerd and a bit of a non-conformist (I wasn't a hardcore non-conformist; I didn't have an aversion to doing things because others were doing them; but I certainly didn't feel any pressure to follow the crowd) were beside the point really. If I had actually had the right kind of friends in high school then I can imagine doing my own version of schoolies. Sure, it would have been different from the cool kids' schoolies (drinking oneself silly on the Gold Coast) but some kind of variation on the theme of schoolies would have worked with me. While the idea of drunken revelry on the beach never appealed to me, the idea of spending time post-HSC with a bunch of close mates was very appealing to me at age 17. I longed for those kind of friendships in high school. But the fact of the matter is that I just didn't have them.
Justin, did you read the first comment, left by 'M'? Sounds like there's some form of visible Christian presence at schoolies, and playing a positive role in the experience.
I loved the "schoolies" that I went on in 98...the Whit was awesome, dry and friendly, filled with Christian friends and teaching...we didn't need to go the surfers or byron and get smashed like everybody else...
mind you I had no school group with whom I would have gone to schoolies with, so the Whit was a Godsend for me!
I wonder if you could add "has a positive alternative" to the list. I went to Africa with a school group at the end of high school. It was a pretty conservatively run operation (it was a school thing after all), but it still ticked a lot of the boxes that makes schoolies inviting (even for Christian nerds like me); friends, excitement, adventure and no parents. I suppose it was dangerous in different ways and it probably still terrified my mum.... But I was too busy working and saving to even think about wasting cash on schoolies.
The list is probably a bit restrictive, as I'm sure like the rest of the comments, there are plenty of other reasons people don't go to schoolies.
Anyway, merry christmas justin, and hope you enjoy the summer season.
I went on a form of schoolies in '96, though it was to a location not really shared by any other schools, just our year. So perhaps you can add "suffering from a collective superiority complex" as our year was. As if we wanted to hang out with commoners!
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