A Bored, Gifted Student

The lesson had been dragging on and on. An hour and a half had flown by, but still Mr. Lancelot had yet to stop talking about Ancient Egypt in History. My eyes drifted across the study hall, taking in all the facial expressions of the students present, all except the ones whose faces were already buried in their folded arms on the table, dead asleep. Those awake looked just as bored as I was, some even visibly praying for the long-winded professor to stop talking right now, right then. I, for one, was tired – not tired in a literary sense, but tired of studying and learning in an enclosed space with just a book before me, restrained behind a desk.


I wanted more; I wasn’t afraid to admit it. I sounded greedy, but that was the truth.

A piece of paper floated onto my desk and I looked down to a big and fat, red A staring back at me. A friend clapped me behind the back, knocking the wind of out me.

“Third A in just one morning, girl! Nicely done! You’re bound to graduate with first-class honours!”

I rolled my eyes. Yeah, that’s exactly what I needed. Another piece of paper claiming I was a smart-ass. It was exciting at first, but even the A’s could get boring now. I mean, I don’t mean to brag or anything, but it just seemed way too predictable for me to get straight A’s. Honestly, I don’t want them. It’s true that I do get recognition for getting straight A’s, but sooner or later, they’ll still only be a piece of paper that was bound to be kept in a folder and left to rot in a storage room at the Ministry of Education. A’s are just alphabets people will first acknowledge you with until another gifted student popped up.

Life is out there. I want to travel and see the world; take pictures and let those images of my passion be acknowledged. If I were to be recognized by the world, it would be done so through my art, for they are who I am – not a bunch of A’s aligned neatly on a piece of paper. I have the special gift of capturing the beauty of life and nature in stills, and yet here I am, stuck in a study hall, learning about dead pharaohs, when life is out there, beyond these walls that boxed me in, ready to be lived at this very moment.