I arrived at 7:45, as the sheet said. There were already about thirty people clustered around a bulletin board to see which testing room they would be in. My mom and I found my name, on the Auditorium list. So, we said goodbye and I walked toward the auditorium, hoping it wouldn’t be far so that I would get lost. The man at the door checked my passport and admission ticket, and then I went in and sat down. I pulled my pencils, calculator, and eraser out of my bag and organized them on the desk. It was getting close to 8 AM, and more people were sitting down. I wondered how many people would be “fashionably” in Arab time – fifteen minutes, even half an hour late. We were about to start, when at 8:02 a tall Arab student walked into the room, his white kandoora sweeping the floor as he strode toward a seat and took his big reflective sunglasses off. At 8:05, three Emirati girls walked in, their sheylas pushed back so that their bangs showed, abayas flying open so we could see their six-inch heels and stylish jeans.
We finally got started. Partway through the first section, while I was filling my mind with random phrases and examples I could use in my essay, the girl in front of me asked for the air conditioning to turn down – I agreed inwardly, I was shivering, even in my sweater, and even though it was 39 C outside. They turned it down, but the formidable foe kept on roaring, blowing its freezing breath on me. The proctors walked up and down between the rows of students pouring over their worksheets. One pushed buttons on his mobile phone as he walked, another peered over our shoulders as he fumbled with prayer beads. One in the front of the room sat, looking bored and checking his watch. The essay section finished, we moved on to the next. The proctors continued to look bored, and I felt just as bored as they looked.
We got to first math section, and some of the students opened their test books for the first time – I felt so sorry for them, they had to sit there doing nothing while we worked on other sections. “You may begin,” a proctor said, and then kept talking. I sighed, wishing he would be quiet so I could focus, after all, he said we could start. “… and you may not move on to another section when you finish, or go back to the other ones…” He droned on, his accent heavy.
I took a drink of water from my water bottle during the break, then escaped the blows of the formidable foe to go into sunshine outside for a few brief moments. Then we were herded back into the testing room – and back into the reach of the formidable foe – with cries of “yella!” from the proctors.
Many sections and another break (during which I noticed 2 of the girls were twins, that’s why I’d had déjà vu earlier…) later, we started the insufferable writing section. I hate that section worse than the math ones. I finished with twelve minutes to spare, then checked my work, and still had over five minutes until we finished. I started ‘twiddling my thumbs,’ but then “That which was from the beginning…” popped into my head, and I started reviewing all of my memory verses in my head. 1 John 1, Song of Solomon 3:5, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 1 Timothy 4:6-16, 1 Timothy 2:1-13, and 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 later, it was finally time to move on.
I started slacking as my nose began to run and the formidable foe blew even harder, and I fidgeted because I couldn’t cross my legs under the low desk. I was thankful, however, that my feet did touch the floor for once.
At last they released us from that room, and I walked out and pulled out my mobile only to find out that my battery was dead. I quickly asked another girl if I could borrow hers to call my mom, and she agreed. Then we talked briefly – she was an American, too, from Texas, but had lived here all her life.
I ran quickly to the gate to wait for my parents, hoping they’d be there soon…
I felt very smart when I deleted the “SAT Question of the Day” from my bookmarks this afternoon, and rejoiced to know that I need never open the Princeton Review book ever again. I busied myself with the things I love – writing, housework, and oboe (Piano and guitar were no-no’s that day, as I’d already almost killed my thumb filling in bubbles). I wondered again why I even took the SAT, as I’m not going to college. “For the name of homeschoolers,” I reminded myself. “For the name of homeschoolers…”
So... I'm sure many people on here have taken the SAT.
But I highly doubt anyone's experience was quite like mine - people arriving in Arab time (fashionably late...), proctors walking up and down fumbling with prayer beads... and a formidable foe that comes when there's no central air conditioning...
... all suffered through for the name of homeschoolers! :)
Comments
May I ask?
Ah yes, the dreaded instruction speel..except I took ACT and PLAN and PSAT! Ek! And may I ask what your future holds if not college?
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The Word is alive/and it cuts like a sword through the darkness
With a message of life to the hopeless/and afraid...
~"The Word is Alive' by Casting Crowns
May my words be a light that guides others to the True Light and Word.
Formerly Kestrel
Bridget: Not SAT's, the SAT.
Bridget: Not SAT's, the SAT. :) Why they have to make life so confusing with similar names, I don't know. A sheyla is also known as a hijab or head scarf - what the Muslim women wear to cover their hair.
And the proctors were Muslim, as far as I know. The one with the prayer beads, at least.
Kestrel: Through Bible study and prayer, my family (along with others) have understood that the biblical realm of a woman is in the home (Titus 2:5, Proverbs 31, to name just the most famous) under the protection of her father (Numbers 30) or husband (Ephesians 5). Thus in the home, not a career. So instead of going to college to prepare for a career I don't want to use and don't believe I should biblically be using, then I'm staying at home and learning how to run a home, helping other homeschool families and my family, and teaching music lessons.
... that's just the short answer. Maybe sometime I'll post the long answer...
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“The venerable dead are waiting in my library to entertain me and relieve me from the nonsense of surviving mortals.”
- Samuel Davies
I liked this essay, Kyleigh.
I liked this essay, Kyleigh. It was humorous.
Yeah, I'm not going to college either. I had been going to...
It's kind of funny because it was my dad who suggested that I go and get a nursing or a teaching degree at Bob Jones University, but then later on he told me he didn't think a girl needed to go to college. At first I didn't agree, but now I do. So I'm going to stay home and learn how to be a wife and mother from watching and learning from my mother.
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The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation-
C.S.Lewis
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The best stories are those that are focused, unassuming, and self-confident enough to trust the reader to figure things out. --
http://lauraeandrews.blogspot.com/2014/05/dont-tell-me-hes-smart.html
Mon, 06/15/2009 - 04:25
In reply to I liked this essay, Kyleigh. by Laura Elizabeth
Glad you liked it, Laura. It
Glad you liked it, Laura. It was fun writing it. In fact, parts of it were written in my head during boring parts of the test. :P
And thanks for your comment - it's encouraging to know my sister and I aren't the only ones. :)
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“The venerable dead are waiting in my library to entertain me and relieve me from the nonsense of surviving mortals.”
- Samuel Davies
Wonderful essay! Don't ever
Wonderful essay! Don't ever worry that you and your sister are the only ones who don't want to go to college. Right now, I have absolutally NO plans for anything like that. I just am having a really hard time right now seeing why so many people what to pack up and leave for a stinky old collage when they could be getting a job, or getting married, or something like that. People are always asking me if I'm going to collage and when I say, "right now I don't want to," they look at me like, "oh, you poor uneducated person...wanting to live life instead of growing discontented at a school half way across the country,"! Ok so they don't say it exactly like that, but that's how I look at it. :)
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"To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be that have tried it." -- Herman Melville
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"To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be that have tried it." -- Herman Melville
I Object!!!!
Oh! No offense, but I get soooo irritated with people like you peoples....For one thing it bothers me when people think that women were designed to sit in a corner and sew quietly while they watched the men make all the decisions! Men sometimes are incapable of making the right decisions without the knowledge that only a woman has. And for another thing WHAT'S WRONG WITH GOING TO COLLEGE! I have three basic points in support of college:
1. Everyone, no matter whether male or female, should further their education! Especially if you are going to homeschool.
2. You always learn more than just math and science etc. at college (which by the way, it would be much easier to get a job if you've been to college and have learned a trade of some kind). You learn how to work with other people, and how to follow rules, and how to use your mind under pressure. You learn about other people and yourself, and most importantly about God, which brings us to point number three.
3. Everyone can study the Bible, but if your study is without teaching then you are going to be missing something. In piano, it's always easier to learn if you have someone teaching you, rather than if you're just teaching yourself, right? It's that way with everything you learn. That's why it's important to go to a Christian college; the people who teach bible at these schools have studied it more than a lot. They know what their talking about (or most of them do).
So, in closing, if you're going to talk about God, then remember that God told us to learn about Him and the rest of mankind. Also remember, that those years are deciding years in a person's life, it would be better that they spend them learning at a college, than just trying to get a job.
(Sorry if I made anyone angry...I don't like to do that, but I think this is really important and I need to say something...that's it.)
Other than that, good essay. I always think it's funny the way muslim women wear the most fashionable clothes. Also, what's the difference between ACTs and SATs? I never could figure that out.
Oh! Also, one more thing, if we all stayed in the same little place, America would never have been founded, I would be in New York right now instead of Arizona, all my brothers and sisters would be in New York instead of Russia, Washington, California and Colorado, and the world would never know Christ. God did say to go in to ALL the world and preach the gospel...yeah, so, I rest my case.
"Start at the beginning, and when you come to the end...stop." Alice in Wonderland (movie)
Whoa, that was
Whoa, that was long....
"Start at the beginning, and when you come to the end...stop." Alice in Wonderland (movie)
First of all, this isn't
This isn't really the place to be having this discussion. I'll reply this once, and then after this we should continue this discussion over email or elsewhere because it's not pertinent to the essay.
As for sewing quietly in the corner, that's not exactly what the Proverbs 31 woman was doing. Not going to college does not mean spending all of my time doing housework, nor does it mean spending any time just sitting around.
1 - I'm not against furthering education! I just doubt if college is the best place to do that - I don't want a degree, but I do want to continue my studies - I have big plans for furthering my language studies especially, and my theological and music ones as well. Also, a friend of a friend has more knowledge than most college graduates just be being a research assistant for her dad. College does not always equal education.
2 - All of that experience you can get away from college. Internships are becoming more popular, and are more effective. College interactions are not real-world ones, because you're with peers. Once you're out of school then you no longer are "socialized" by peers, and you need to know how to interact well with people of all ages.
3 - I agree! However, I never said I'd be studying on my own. I have a wonderful Church, a godly and wise father, and am surrounded by many people who teach me daily and who would be willing to study the Word with me. As for Christian colleges... I know of many "Christian" colleges who have just as Marxist worldviews as the nonChristian ones - just putting a warning out there, even under the name Christian, we must still hold everything to the Word of God.
Honestly, I completely do NOT understand how college would help you learn more about mankind. College is most definitely not the only place to learn about man, and the best place would be in the place where man is daily interacting with each other in the "real world," not at some place of learning where everything is in preparation.
As for going out into all the world, many of the most effective missionaries had no college degrees. William Carey was a cobbler. Much of the spread of the gospel happened before colleges were founded. God can use who He wants, regardless of age or experience.
As for the validity of not going to college for others, I think for girls it should be the exception because it should be the exception that a Christian woman would need a career outside of the home. But regardless of whether male or female, I have this to say: "Everything is lawful for me, but not everything is profitable."
If you want to continue this discussion, please message me, I'm happy to continue it, but this is for comments on the writing, not discussions.
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“The venerable dead are waiting in my library to entertain me and relieve me from the nonsense of surviving mortals.”
- Samuel Davies
Give me until monday, and
Give me until monday, and I'll take you up on that. I've got a busy week, but I will get back to you...yeah...
"Start at the beginning, and when you come to the end...stop." Alice in Wonderland (movie)
I object right back at you!
I am not completely down on colleges...I was just stating some of the things that I was thinking of.
Travel -- I think going to college would take away more of your traveling opportunities.
Career -- I know a person, right out of high school, (not mentioning any names here) who had a great opportunity to learn from a man who had his own business and was quite successful, but this person decided to go to an expensive college instead. Today this person lives in the same house as his/her parents, is NOT doing what he/she went to college for and is a completely miserable person. As I said, I'm not saying this is what ALWAYS happens with people who go to college, it's just what I have observed over the years. :)
Please don't loathe me!
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"To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be that have tried it." -- Herman Melville
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"To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be that have tried it." -- Herman Melville
I've done the SAT's since I
I've done the SAT's since I was in second grade, but no, I never had people walking the halls with their prayer beads. Do you procters have another religion or something? And what is a sheyla?
"It is man's inherent nature to scare himself silly for no good reason." - Calvin and Hobbes
"I always wonder why birds stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth. Then I ask myself the same question." - Harun Yahya