Now we’re studying for proper exams,
it’s not just Mr Morgan
banging on about us fulfilling our potentials.
Every teacher is like,
‘It’s about time you lot took school seriously,’
and
‘If you applied yourself, you could
blah blah blah,’
and
‘What do you want to do after your exams anyway?
Have you thought about college?’
I could say,
‘Well,
I wanna be a doctor
with my own practice down
Harley Street
and make four hundred quid an hour.
But
if that isn’t possible
maybe I could
work in films,
and make stuff
that everyone watches.
Or
if,
you know,
like,
I don’t get great results,
I could do an apprenticeship or something
like my aunt Helen
who works as a hairdresser on a cruise ship.’
But
the thing is,
it doesn’t matter what I want,
how smart I am
or what results I get –
people like me
never get out
of places
like this.