Dear IB,
I want to say I hope this letter finds you in good health, but both of us know I don't mean that. We unofficially ended our relationship about a week ago. Of course, officially we end when you hand me my IB Diploma and we never have to cross paths again. I wish I could say it has been a pleasure knowing you for two years and spending the majority of my time completing your work. It has not. It has been a difficult two years, to say the least. The naive 16 year old me decided to take you up as a challenge to show that everything is beatable. Halfway through the program, I realized my err. You cannot be beaten at your own game, when played by your own rules.
I agree that it is difficult to adjust to normal life again after that ordeal. It has been two weeks since I celebrated walking out of that exam hall and I am terrified of the fact that I have absolutely no work to do anymore. Two years ago that would make me rejoice, now it's driving me crazy. I also agree that there were some things you made me do that temporarily restored my faith in you. Most of my investigations were fun and full of knowledge that I wouldn't otherwise obtained. However, maths was the last straw. The maths essay you made me do was the final confirmation I needed to label you as crazy.
After that, it was easy to see why you made me suffer with the different kinds of essays and take exams that a University student would find difficult to answer. You were crazy. And you liked seeing us go through the pain of trying to juggle a million things at once and do well in all of them. IB, you made all of us into completely different people to who we were when we first joined your program. From chirpy, positive, naive fifteen and sixteen year olds you changed us into antisocial, negative, wised-up, focused, and organized seventeen and eighteen year olds.
I can go on ranting in this letter about how you gave us no choice but to be locked up in our rooms till three in the night, trying to finish all the work successfully to our individual abilities and failing massively, but I think you've heard this from every student who has ever managed to successfully complete your strenuous program. I want to tell you, grudgingly, how much you helped me with that insane program of yours.
Yes, helped me. University starts in two months, and I don't think I would feel this prepared and ready for it without going through your program where you pushed me hard enough to help me get over my previous mistakes and move on from them. You made me look forward, and not cry over spilt milk. You made me organized enough to know when and how to spend time and realistic enough to realize that everything that I want doesn't work. You prepared me for University, and for the rest of my life, so I don't mind that you made me work it all off for two years.
So, Dear IB, I hate you for the ordeal you put me through in those two years when I never thought I will get out of it, but I do accept that without you I would not be feeling as confident about living my life and achieving my dreams as I do right now.
Yours Sincerely,
Another IB Student
I want to say I hope this letter finds you in good health, but both of us know I don't mean that. We unofficially ended our relationship about a week ago. Of course, officially we end when you hand me my IB Diploma and we never have to cross paths again. I wish I could say it has been a pleasure knowing you for two years and spending the majority of my time completing your work. It has not. It has been a difficult two years, to say the least. The naive 16 year old me decided to take you up as a challenge to show that everything is beatable. Halfway through the program, I realized my err. You cannot be beaten at your own game, when played by your own rules.
I agree that it is difficult to adjust to normal life again after that ordeal. It has been two weeks since I celebrated walking out of that exam hall and I am terrified of the fact that I have absolutely no work to do anymore. Two years ago that would make me rejoice, now it's driving me crazy. I also agree that there were some things you made me do that temporarily restored my faith in you. Most of my investigations were fun and full of knowledge that I wouldn't otherwise obtained. However, maths was the last straw. The maths essay you made me do was the final confirmation I needed to label you as crazy.
After that, it was easy to see why you made me suffer with the different kinds of essays and take exams that a University student would find difficult to answer. You were crazy. And you liked seeing us go through the pain of trying to juggle a million things at once and do well in all of them. IB, you made all of us into completely different people to who we were when we first joined your program. From chirpy, positive, naive fifteen and sixteen year olds you changed us into antisocial, negative, wised-up, focused, and organized seventeen and eighteen year olds.
I can go on ranting in this letter about how you gave us no choice but to be locked up in our rooms till three in the night, trying to finish all the work successfully to our individual abilities and failing massively, but I think you've heard this from every student who has ever managed to successfully complete your strenuous program. I want to tell you, grudgingly, how much you helped me with that insane program of yours.
Yes, helped me. University starts in two months, and I don't think I would feel this prepared and ready for it without going through your program where you pushed me hard enough to help me get over my previous mistakes and move on from them. You made me look forward, and not cry over spilt milk. You made me organized enough to know when and how to spend time and realistic enough to realize that everything that I want doesn't work. You prepared me for University, and for the rest of my life, so I don't mind that you made me work it all off for two years.
So, Dear IB, I hate you for the ordeal you put me through in those two years when I never thought I will get out of it, but I do accept that without you I would not be feeling as confident about living my life and achieving my dreams as I do right now.
Yours Sincerely,
Another IB Student
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