This was a plan for a youth center I had conjured up when I was 16. In a corner of one of the busiest junctions in my district was this plot of stinky swamp and it was never quite in use. Granted that it was lush, green, pretty, but my then self didn't feel like it did much for the community. Of course she had better ideas for this plot of land. Et voila, quick sketch of a building program: a magnificent youth center.
This center was a call for teen youths to be active about something in their lives. It was for all the teens who were drifters after school. The ones who didn't have a whole social circle of friends to attend to, extra classes, music lessons, or house chores during their humid sunny evenings. It was for the ones who didn't know about much, weren't privileged enough to know much.
The whole grand scheme was a by-product of the limbo of my form 4 when I was still quite far away from the end of high school exams but entirely clueless about my plans with life. I'd wished with all my heart for a mentor figure, someone adult I could talk to, nonjudgmental or discriminative. Someone who would sit me down and talk to me about college, applications, life and career.
I didn't mean a classmate who was to tutor you at a certain subject, or a senior facilitator who was to 'show you the ropes of high school' indeed, by playing team building games. I meant an adult, or a full grown high school finisher, that before spm, would allow you to sit and talk to you about college, applications, life and career. Not really love, not really sporting houses politics, not high school drama.
While I'm aware that some schools had counsellors, they weren't the perfect neutral, mature strangers that would inevitably embody Yoda and give me the force to put me on the right path in life. Someone who was kind and didn't know me enough on face value to judge my ideas and thoughts, and would give an encourage prod with: could work, if you're interested. Let's see how you can do that...
Because I was 16. I didn't have a clue about the real world and its formulas and functions. I didn't know what cgpa meant, didn't know the difference between actuarial and physical science, or the staggering amount of universities available in the country. I had no idea how to map out my whole life, or at least a starting point on the subject matter. It's like an insanely ginormous flaw, a void, in the education system, that does not educate for life after school.
Looking back at the past few years, I've had friends who blasted their college process by spur of the moment choices- foundation courses vs. public universities vs. matriculation. Of course for some there are parents' requests to consider, and for some the light at the end of the tunnel is already bright and beckoning as day. But aside from them, there were a bunch going to career fairs and being taken by the coolest college brochures and their idols on television.
What I've noticed is that it's these same people that inevitably end up thinking, I wish I'd taken something else. Or, I wish I'd known then, what I know now. Some drop out, some end up doing totally different things fresh out of grad school. Not everyone, I know. But in order to prevent a bigger risk margin, we go back to the main purpose of my youth center, was to at least provide a certain exposure to the teens in the community.
Things like alternative classes, programs, charity works, worskshops, community services, camping trips. It would ship all the unsure souls and attempt to inject some more meaning, more direction and punch to their lives. The whole thing would operate with professional volunteers out to do good in their spare time, partnerships with various bodies and companies, NGOs and the lot. But not with the ultimate purpose of commercial entitlement. It'd be a neutral ground to seek advice, to hone talent, to meet people and save the environment and then, the world.
The whole idea sounds immensely romantic now that I'm 20, come to think of it, but maybe this will happen one day :) one day.
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