As he proudly bows out of the school system, Daniel Schloss describes his journey in matric as bittersweet.
Schloss, 18, said that all his school life, all he had wanted was to finish matric and be done with school. And now that the day had come, he wished it hadn’t.
“Throughout my entire school career, I had anticipated the moment where I could say: ‘I have completed my final exam and it’s time to move on.’
“That feeling transformed from excitement to wistfulness. The nostalgic feelings I had surprised me as I never expected to be hesitant about finishing matric, but the year culminated on such a high that I felt sad to be finishing my school career.”
Schloss told The Star that the workload in matric was out of this world.
Studying for the examinations had been daunting and was one aspect of of his matric journey that he would not miss.
“However, the past year has made me realise that even during the time that I needed to be the most studious and hard working, I experienced the most amount of joy.
“I spent much of last year studying for exams but, ironically, it was the year where I improved and strengthened my school relationships the most.”
Like the bookworm he is, Schloss described his best moments as the ones when he was seated at his desk in class.
On how he had found the preliminary examinations, the matriculant said they had been more challenging than the final examinations.
“When I was studying for preliminary examinations, school lessons were still ongoing. This made it difficult to find time to learn for these examinations as I would have a full school day which allowed me to begin my studies only in the later afternoon.
“Along with the stress of exams, I also had additional school tasks that needed to be completed before exams could begin, increasing the pressure I felt.
“Furthermore, most of the content required for prelims was newly learnt and I felt less familiar with the work than for my final examinations.”
Schloss said in the immediate future, he would like to work either in the engineering sector or as an actuarial scientist.
He said he was fortunate to have been provisionally accepted at university to pursue a degree in either engineering or actuarial science. The acceptance was based on his Grade 11 results.
“This year, I plan to go to University in Johannesburg to study one of these degrees. My love for mathematics and science has encouraged me to choose either engineering or actuarial science.
However, I am still unsure which degree I would prefer to study. I hope that by working diligently, I will excel in either one of these fields.”