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At fifteen, one rarely considers school a place of learning.

You rock up in the morning, you get shown what to do, and then you get told to do it again in your own time. It is a social arena of good mates and good times, a colosseum of jests and flirting, and, to many, a court room of superficiality.

Until you learn a jest is merely a jest and a fool merely a fool, the schoolyard is as much a battle ground as it is a breeding ground for the next generation of lawyers, physicists etcetera. The measure of good students is their capacity to supersede the jaded opinions of others and learn something about themselves, day after day, constructing an image of what they want to be. The measure of a good teacher is how accurate a mirror they can be for someone struggling to find that image.

Whether it’s the arts, sporting events, film or video games, the teenage condition is that we follow our fleeting passions and try to justify them as our vocation, our true calling. It’s part of growing up. We roll with the moment until something comes along that not only catches our attention, but holds it, permeates deeper than the layers of impatience spawned from instant messaging and television.

I don’t claim to be an innocent observer, I too have whittled away the hours in front of the mesmerising ‘curriculum mandatory’ laptop screen (it’s not just a game, dad, it’s an MMORPG, gosh!). Gentle encouragement should be coupled with an open mind, as well as the application of reasonable boundaries.

People need other people in order to function. Friends and family are why we choose to do things. But few people are honest enough to give truthful wisdom, not just the heavily embroidered words of kindness we think we want to hear. Kind words can be dangerous enough on their own and honest words powerful enough to make people dangerous. Slowly, non-judgementally, analyse what people are really saying. Let advice be gently scrutinised for truth before application. A true friend doesn’t want your blind faith; they want your active thought on a situation and personal understanding of the truth.

I want to write. I want to make people think and make people laugh with my writing. So I read and I watch and observe the way the world ticks over. One of the best things you can teach yourself is how to learn. I sit back and watch and learn from what I see.

Sometimes it’s nice just to watch the passing of students and teachers through the school grounds just to get a sense of the fluidity of time and how people and things come and go and bounce off one another. It’s very important to me to unwind in this way. Without becoming lazy, active rest allows the mind to unclutter and regain focus.

Find for yourself a state of balance between active and inactive, intuitive and factual, and don’t take anything too seriously.

Especially not me.

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