School start properly next week. Or this week. It depend who you ask, and whether you count the afternoon they hand out the reading lists as “starting.”
I have four IGCSE subjects: Business, Maths, ESL, and World Literature. When I say that out loud, people wait for the fifth one, like I forget Science on the bus. I didn’t forget. I pick these on purpose, even if I couldn’t explain why in January.
I can explain it better now. Sort of.
Business is the one that make my relatives nod. Finally, a subject that sound like a plan. I didn’t pick it because it sound like a plan. I pick it because I keep watching people choose things — a phone, a school, a brand of headphones — and I want the actual words for what they are doing. Opportunity cost. Incentives. Why a company kill a product that still have fans. I used to think that was just being nosy. Apparently it’s a syllabus.
Maths is there because Business without Maths is just opinions with a logo. I am not the kid who do extra algebra for fun. I am the kid who get annoyed when a graph in a news article have no axis labels. Numbers are how you check whether a story is true. Also, if I want study anything finance-related later, I cannot treat Maths like a side quest. I already try that in Year 8. It go badly, and I would like to not do that again.
ESL is the honest one. English is the language I read in, write in, and still sometimes think in the wrong order. People assume that if you like books, ESL is too easy, or that if you take ESL, you can’t like books. Both of those are lazy. I want to get better at being precise. Not fancier. Precise. There is a difference between “the company grew” and “the company grew because they raise prices on people who didn’t notice.” Same subject. Different sentence. ESL is where I practise not blurring those.
World Literature is the one I would take even if nobody grade it. I like stories. I like that a play from a hundred years ago can still make me uncomfortable. I like that a short story can be about a necklace or a rose and also about class, pride, and the stupid things people do to look valuable.
The reason these four belong together is that they keep interrupting each other.
I read a story about someone ruining their life over an object, and my Business brain say: that was a valuation error. My Maths brain say: they never run the numbers. My ESL brain say: the author make you feel the mistake before you can name it. Then I feel a bit guilty for turning a character into a case study, and I write it down anyway.
That’s what this year is for. Not becoming a mini-consultant. Just paying attention on purpose.
I already look at the World Literature list. There’s Chekhov. There’s Oscar Wilde. There’s a play about an orchard a family cannot afford to keep. There’s a story where a bird die to make a flower, and then nobody want the flower. I haven’t read all of it yet. I’m not going to pretend I have. But I open the list on Friday afternoon and didn’t close it, which is usually how I know I’m in the right place.
If these posts sound like I’m thinking out loud, that’s because I am. I’ll get some of this wrong. I’ll probably change my mind about a book halfway through. I’d rather do that here than wait until I have a neat opinion.
Anyway. Four subjects. One year. I should pack my bag.