The best is yet to come?

3:26pm Monday 30th June 2008

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MOST teens are somewhat sceptical when adults proclaim that their school days were the "best of their lives".

For many, the prospect that years of (admittedly melodramatic) adolescent angst will be the pinnacle of our entire lifetime is more than a little daunting.

Yet as seven years of secondary school education draw to a close for sixth-formers, it is all too easy to overlook the hours of coursework, public examinations and dreaded PE lessons in favour of an altogether more rose-tinted view.

Suddenly the extra-curricular activities that seemed so tiresome in the first few years are fond and distant memories, whilst any projects involving group work no longer appear ripe with possibilities for friendship rifts but are instead imbued with a peculiarly Enid Blyton-style sense of childlike enthusiasm.

Stretching sticky-back plastic over folders after school may have seemed stressful in the first year but is undoubtedly preferable to the life of mortgage and unpaid overtime that appears to await us.

It is understandable that many teens searching for independence feel strait-jacketed and stifled by seemingly arbitrary rules and regulations during their school days.

So though teens will inevitably scoff at such apparently hackneyed advice, it seems the opportune moment to advise students to appreciate their youth.

Every moment from double maths on a Monday morning to lengthy assemblies in the sweltering heat is part of what remains the quintessential memories of the adolescent experience.