“As much as I hate him, he taught me how to stand up
for myself and see what was right and wrong for me.”
for myself and see what was right and wrong for me.”
ONTARIO
My eighteenth birthday was probably my best one. I enjoyed my birthday cake with my family. But the best thing was that it was right after I quit my Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program for electricians.
I think it was in grade 7 that I really wanted to be an electrician. You don’t often get to see lightning strikes up close and personal, and the idea of it fascinated me so much back then that I just wanted to work with that sort of thing in the field.
Come twelfth grade, I realized that it was a mistake I should never have made. My class was filled with other youth like me, but they were so different, yet so similar to me at the same time. Most importantly, I hated my teacher. He would rant for hours about how colleges wanted you to fail so they could milk you for money. Once, he scared me so badly I had to go hide in the bathroom. He retorted really aggressively to a student who asked what seemed like an obvious question. I just remember flinching badly. He would go on rants about how my entire generation was stupid and pathetic.
One of the last times I was at that school, I was called down to the office. While I was in the waiting room, I thought hard about whether I wanted to stay or leave. I told my counselor that I wanted to go back to my old high school.
I was pretty quiet about my decision, but my mom knew. She wasn’t thrilled, but in the longer term she was so much happier for me.
I was able to get back into my high school. I had to take some extra courses to get the credentials I needed to graduate, and they were some of the easiest courses I've ever had to take. They allowed me to take some time for myself and deal with the PTSD I suffered at the hands of my previous teacher. After graduating high school, I applied to Sheridan’s Childcare and Youth Program, which I’ll be graduating from in April.
Looking back, as much as I hate my OYAP teacher, he taught me how to stand up for myself and see what was right and wrong for me. It’s honestly the only thing I really did learn from him.
Looking ahead, my goal is to become a counselor in a high school with my own office. I think I'd be good at that. It’s just something that I want.
(Interviewed and written by Hazel Mekkattukulam)
I think it was in grade 7 that I really wanted to be an electrician. You don’t often get to see lightning strikes up close and personal, and the idea of it fascinated me so much back then that I just wanted to work with that sort of thing in the field.
Come twelfth grade, I realized that it was a mistake I should never have made. My class was filled with other youth like me, but they were so different, yet so similar to me at the same time. Most importantly, I hated my teacher. He would rant for hours about how colleges wanted you to fail so they could milk you for money. Once, he scared me so badly I had to go hide in the bathroom. He retorted really aggressively to a student who asked what seemed like an obvious question. I just remember flinching badly. He would go on rants about how my entire generation was stupid and pathetic.
One of the last times I was at that school, I was called down to the office. While I was in the waiting room, I thought hard about whether I wanted to stay or leave. I told my counselor that I wanted to go back to my old high school.
I was pretty quiet about my decision, but my mom knew. She wasn’t thrilled, but in the longer term she was so much happier for me.
I was able to get back into my high school. I had to take some extra courses to get the credentials I needed to graduate, and they were some of the easiest courses I've ever had to take. They allowed me to take some time for myself and deal with the PTSD I suffered at the hands of my previous teacher. After graduating high school, I applied to Sheridan’s Childcare and Youth Program, which I’ll be graduating from in April.
Looking back, as much as I hate my OYAP teacher, he taught me how to stand up for myself and see what was right and wrong for me. It’s honestly the only thing I really did learn from him.
Looking ahead, my goal is to become a counselor in a high school with my own office. I think I'd be good at that. It’s just something that I want.
(Interviewed and written by Hazel Mekkattukulam)