For such a glorious day it seems such a glorious waste to spend every waking hour trailing through endless revision notes but this is the reality that many of us young people now face. I particularly feel sorry for those who are to take part in their GCSE examinations. I found cramming my head full of useless GCSE subject details laboriously difficult, I can understand your pain.

There is no doubt in my mind that GCSE are way harder than ‘A’ levels. It may sound surprising but it is true, the quantity of GCSEs staggers even the brightest of minds and conclusively leaves you a numb stupefied mess that wishes to vow never to take another examination again.

Although school for me has always been a little different to everybody else. My brain has been wired back to front, topsy-turvy and consequently I seem to be living in a world full of opposites. I know it sounds ridiculous, perhaps even a little strange but for me dyslexia is like an eccentric gift.

I don’t consider it any problem that I am dyslexic. I am grateful that my dyslexia is only light. I often get my opposites confused, find directions hopelessly confusing, maths is an alien language and my auditory memory is rather bad.

School has provided me a challenge not only academically but personally. I have had to recognise the various problems I have and find ways to get around them. The concept of milk going on the cereal and water going in the cup was difficult to grasp when I was 5 years old.

Now as a student proceeding to finish his A level exams I would be lying if my dyslexia challenge is now finished. I have to accept that my brain has been wired back to front and that everybody else is usually just talking incorrectly, I’m normal. What I can say is that dyslexia is not a problem, I have beaten it academically and have achieved higher than those without dyslexia.

At school it is very easy for fellow students to mock, in the past I have occasionally experienced such instances, especially with grasping mathematical concepts. However, just because I can’t understand Pythagoras’s Theorem does not mean I cannot understand the possible influence Pythagoras had upon Plato.

A while ago I wrote an article for the British Dyslexia Magazine explaining the certain difficulties of being dyslexic at school and the methods to get around them. Of course bullying was common in Primary School, after all I couldn’t read until I was eight, but something which is always true about the bully is that personally he is not satisfied and usually suffering from far worse issues.

From what I have observed dyslexia is usually the bully at school. It makes academic life that little bit more difficult, socially can make it difficult to relate but ultimately we have to realise we must beat the bully. Dyslexia is the bully, beat it.

That really sums me up, well I like to think my heart is much deeper than that (Why do people say ‘heart’? Surely everything we feel and think is in the mind) but I tend to stray into the grounds of pessimism fairly often. If you can be so benevolent for the second line I would not brand myself a full on fundamentalist pessimist but instead a sceptical thinking that can’t help but focus on the bad points. Not that pessimism is a bad attribute, but it can be fairly tiresome listening to a person who can only focus on his or her woes. Nothing is more irritating though than a person who is optimistic all the time. Such a disturbing characteristic only brings memories of dread to my mind. So I’m rather militant to those who are optimists and I urge you all to look on the bad side of life.

You may be wondering how my superfluous natter about pessimism and optimism actually could lead onto a worthwhile article and I was so ever tempted to mirror my article, “No Method behind the Madness, the Holidays are Here” , thankfully this holiday is rather different. Perhaps thankfully is the wrong word (My tainted effort for optimism shines through)? I have conceivably far more work this spring break which would seem dulling but like so many of you may have understood and hopefully appreciated I do not always find work tediously dulling.

McDonald's work is the incarnation of Satan placed in a bun and then fed to a divorced husband who is taking his children on a day out to Sutton high street; I’ll admit practical part time work sucks the orange out of juice but place me in front of a book and I should be rather content.

This spring break then is a chance for me to spring upon revision and learn all the deepest darkest secrets of revision’s ways. It is boring in places and fun in others and so the balance of pessimism and optimism has been found. The issue with these spring holidays is the confusion between work and play because a balance in those matters is very difficult, if not impossible to find. The balance is so precise indeed that it can have horrible effects on your own essence.

I have found myself loaded with huge amounts of time this first week of the holidays but have lost whole days from bumbling around the house reminiscing on the vast amount of paper work which still awaits. This sort of mindless activity only suited for a lemon can leave you very pessimistic. Going out with friends then balances your essence with optimism and makes the holiday seem worthwhile. It just so happens that my younger brother is an optimist that also finds himself bumbling around the house avoiding work. So now I shall take great pleasure shooting the optimist and getting back to my own pessimistic ways.

Feel free to join my religion of pessimism, entry is horrendously expensive and you will find everything to be bothersome, bland and boring. Welcome to the world of revision!

This article is not designed to be some dumb founded blogtastrify which explains my deep struggles, all entitled under some innocent utterance of a story explaining my life. The terrible scales into which celebrity culture demands that amongst the star studied ear rings, the extravagant dinner evenings and the tortured soul of some loved entertainer, singer or dancer, has to convince themselves that money does not bring happiness (or indeed a house these days) but instead a burden which sets down upon them. The story of my life would be so utterly boring, even for myself to comprehend, if it matched up to the cliché limelight of celebrity success and then deep, dastardly, desert less, depression which haunts so many well known figures.

University is of course the focus for many teenagers my age and certainly the path which seems ideal for me. It’s about trading 3 or 4 years of your life to gain experience outside of your home, discovering who you really are and continuing education to a career path of your choice. Everybody is different in so many glorious ways – different skills, personalities and paths for their lives. This is not to say university is the only answer in path way to find achievement in your life. A few boys decide to leave school and find joys in life other than continuing in the repetitive system of education. One boy certainly who gains that criteria is my friend Ben Hamilton, a very good writer, who has recently started his only little interweb paradise spot (http://www.benhamilton.co.uk) .

My planned travels for my life are to go to university and study Public Relations. Public Relations is a rather difficult subject to explain without shouts of disapproval of others simply because it is such a varied subject. The skills it does provide are knowledge of communication, how to write, ethical understanding of business, understanding of technology. Really it is such a varied subject that acts a wildcard in the game of life which hopefully can be twisted to my advantage.

One path I would like to follow is one of a writer. I would love to have something published, recognized in the future, simply because I love writing. I want to see my book on the shelve, an article in a newspaper (hint, hint, Guardian!) or my work in a magazine. A poem in a pamphlet or my book in a bedroom! This is not down to arrogant satisfaction but simply the ideal way (at least in my mind) to praise my hard learnt talents and to communicate to the outside world. There is far more to life than fulfilling selfish satisfaction but writing can be my mix of possibly giving pleasure to others as well as to myself.

But here is the but, and it is a rather large promiscuous but; I do not want to leave education. I know it may sound silly but I actually enjoy sitting down and learning about the standardisation of the English Language. I enjoy reading what the great thinkers in philosophy have reasoned, I enjoy knowing how people define what is right and wrong, I love to discover the origins of our world and delve into the complex but purely natural world of nature. To leave this all behind would leave my mind feeling empty and useless – abandoned in an illogical world where learning how to sell dishwashers effectively is the only concern.

At the same time I need to gain my freedom from the clasps of Surrey and to venture out into a world which I still have so much to learn about. So perhaps my leaving of school is something to look forward to? What I do know for certain is that my cooking skills will need to be vastly improved!

I’m not going to lie, I love the world. While people complain about the large amounts of immigrants entering the country I love the variation this gives society. Of course there are detrimental effects to such large variation, none at least the problem of uniting people of different religious faith together in a country founded on Christian principles but ultimately we have to embrace the future. This future being that travelling around the world is becoming cheaper, easier and quicker, so cross cultured societies will inevitably spawn and, I think, flourish.

The other aspect of the world which I love is nature, its beauty, sophistication and how it has challenged and inspired the minds of great people. Last year I managed to combine my fascination of technology and bewilderment of nature to form an article explaining how the process of natural selection that charges evolution has influenced the way in which we have designed our technology, ranging from planes to sonar systems. It’s just a shame that everybody does not recognize this admiration of nature.

Of course we all have different interests but I do feel sorry for the amount of young people who feel they must keep earphones firmly in their ears wherever they go. I understand that older people also partake in the same annoying activity but for the sake of argument I shall focus on the younger people because they should know better. Something I realised about listening to music while walking is that it takes away one of your senses, the ability to hear. I don’t need to explain how dangerous this could be but how boring the world becomes. Listening to music on the way to work or school seems to bathe the world around you in a boring, quiet and repeated glaze, an extension of your speakers at home that just wants to make you a product of a sheepish society. I do hope I’m not being too extreme but it’s almost a conspiracy, like a hidden message within the neon lights of the media, that the extensive use of technology is an adoration of praise to our very existence. Well, in fact, extensive use of technology is the complete opposite.

I’m sure we have all seen the news today and in the past for that matter. The topic which was raised was that of ‘technological addicts’, people that cannot bear to leave their mobile, PDA, MP3 player or any other gizmo a few feet away from them. A love of technology is good but as with anything it is possible to overkill and limit your way of life. Those who know my views will know that I believe that human free thought is ultimately the highest ideal, perhaps a humanist view, that we have the ability to shape our own lives. The problem is that we must not mould young people into desensitising people that find personal entertainment as a more important ideal over the well beings of fellow humans or indeed their own walk in life.

I do agree with Local Guardian youth editor, Lauren Fraser , who said in her last article:

“Society as a whole needs to be more accepting and more accommodating for the young and the old.”

It’s a widely held view that I have got wrong time and time again. Our society at the moment is going through a modern era of change. The change in technology, the change in personal values and how the world is changing generally. In the next ten years we will be even further forward and a distinction must be made that old and young people are just individuals. Although age seems more distant due to how fast the world is changing ultimately we are just all individuals that are trying to find fun in the world. We all need to learn how to respect each other, not only age wise but those from different cultures.

Last week I went on the British National Parties’ website and trawled through their quarrelsome rants which rather cleverly disguise their racial prejudices of everyone who is not British. They say they aren’t a racist party but at the same time their policies segregate out those of different race.

The BNP is not the ideal outlook for Britain as they will make our already little detached country even further away from Europe and besides which, our society and culture is already heavily influenced. BNP members want to keep the English Language ‘pure’ but simply do not recognize the growing trend of language. If we define Britain by language we have to accept Britain is a beautiful mixture of French, Chinese, American, Greek and Latin, of course society is exactly the same.

Let’s break down the boundaries that make us see everybody as pessimistically different and embrace change that will inevitably change again. Old people are young people and being British is about accepting others. After all we have to thank China for their tea and Italy for introducing us to coffee.

Welcome to England! Our country is proudly British, we all follow tradition and none of us are ashamed to own a picture of the Queen in our home! Sorry, but this is just not Britain anymore. The majority of Brits in this country would regard themselves simply as English and “God save the Queen” seems to ring awkwardly because most people don’t believe in God and the Queen is simply ‘that unelected, unrepresentative monarch’. There is no doubt that the 21st Century is going to be an interesting one. Already we are far more technologically advanced compared to the early 20th century and an emphasis upon liberty seems to be pushed as being a human right.

Every human is open to their own decisions... but when those decisions harm another human being suddenly a liberal mindset seems wrong. How is a liberal state of mind meant to work when there are definitely ethical absolutes which you must observe within society? This, I think, is part of the problem our country is facing at the moment. People can lead their liberal lives but when something goes wrong a call of action is evoked and people realise the world is something more than a free state of mind. A realisation of truth hits those who have been affected by crime, violence and other offences – that our country needs to be fixed.

No doubt a major factor behind crime is alcohol. The sheer number of police on the streets have been placed there simply to monitor and control the ones utterly intoxicated with the drink. So when a legislation of ‘under 18s banned from drinking in public places’ comes through suddenly I am forced to reconsider my immediate reaction of disapproval.

We have to understand that not all under 18s drink heavily and over 18s can drink equally irresponsibly. Recently I went on a student exchange trip to Denmark and although the drinking in Denmark was also heavy, it was far more controlled. People would have fun at the parties/bars, then later go onto the streets and not cause any harm. Our country is a death trap once the bars close, like a zoo except the cages have been removed. Only way to sort the problem out is to put the cages back in place, pass the new legislation.

Or is it?

I’m rather sceptical of this, yet another, new legislation. It is impossible to enforce and is discriminating against an age group. It is possible that many under 18s drink because they enjoy the drink, not the drunkenness and all this legislation seems to be is yet more red tape around an already choking Britain. I used to be a responsible under 18 year old and if I had my drink taken away from me in public simply due to my age I would be outraged.

I can see the benefits of this ban but the utilitarian approach to it only ruins the moral teenager’s fun.

Life as a teenager never seems to get easier and it’s not our fault either. Honestly, it really isn’t, blame puberty. The hair starts on the big toes, makes it way from the legs to our arms and then all over our face. As an experienced teenager I know these things but soon I wave hello to manhood, yes, that special age is approaching.

The most annoying thing about puberty, at least for guys, is the huge amount of hair which seems to appear all over the body. I guess when I say huge I’m being rather pathetic, I guess its not much hair but I do miss the days when I could look down at completely bald legs. No doubt the most irritating place for hair to grow is the face. Getting up in the morning is usually about not getting up for a teenager. However, when a moustache begins to grow you cannot afford to miss the bathroom for this morning, you have to face the music and have that wash and shave. Perhaps a moustache is God’s way of telling the teenage race that we need a clean?

Not all listen to this ‘moustache calling’. I go to Richard Challoner School in New Malden and its clear which boys have missed the bathroom because they always have hair consuming their little spotty pubescent faces. I can’t imagine them looking in the mirror and considering their face as perfect for the school day. Yet again perhaps they can’t see amongst the pastorals which petrude through their faces? Sorry, I know it sounds disgusting but its true and before I go any further I would like to point out Richard Challoner is a brilliant school. Apart from the teenagers the school has excellent facilities (even has a brand new gym, sports hall, sixth form centre and drama studio!).

The reason for my teenage rambling is due to a special event, two special events actually. Firstly my 18th birthday is fast approaching and I’m really excited! Finally I will be able to vote… on that note Gordon Brown should have really called the election! Currently we have Gordon Brown leading things and the country didn’t even vote for him! Is this a democracy or a dictatorship? Labour is constantly voting in new legislations which only ruin the lives of the people and cause less money income. I will also be able to vote for a new mayor. Bye Ken Livingston and welcome Boris Johnson!

At 18 most things can be done. I can buy alcohol in a bar, join the armed forces without parental consent, drive a medium sized goods vehicle, see 18 rated films, buy fireworks, obtain a commercial pilot license, gamble, get married without parental consent and even donate my organs to science. I can sign a binding contract which means I could technically sell my soul to the cheese industry. After all, being 18 is being an adult and so suddenly the world opens up.

It’s a good job I have a fully functioning brain otherwise I fear being 18 would be a fantastic age to be killed. I have no doubt in the past teenagers have turned 18 and have gone absolutely mad in the power crazed “I’m now 18!” sort of way. I don’t blame them, it’s tempting. I could aim fireworks at Gordon Brown, rob a bank with my medium sized goods vehicle or get tattoos stained all over my body. What will I have achieved? Perhaps a place in a prison cell because I would be 18. Although I’m sure Gordon Brown will let me out…

I did originally say “two special events”; the second event is a rather pathetic one. It’s quite simple, I turn 18 on January 18th! That will never happen again, ever!