h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

 I am 18. I am an ordinary girl in an ordinary city who has never rebelled against anything. That isn't to say that I don't have opinions. I can be outspoken but generally prefer to take the easy option and just agree. Recently I have found a new urgency in my life to be ME. Whether it is the stress of A levels or being dumped by the first bloke that ever meant anything to me I don't know. I am fed up of being pressed by the system. This is the system that I have been living all my life. I am not talking politics. I don't know enough about each side to make an informed opinion on that. I am talking school systems. I am leaving the school I have been in for 7 years at the end of this month. I haven't made one difference to anything in that time. 7 years and I no one will remember me. So I have a month to make a difference. I am planning to!
This is the school that forces people with no religious beliefs to attend mass. this is the school that encourages individuality but makes you wear a uniform. This is the institution that encourages personal opinion as long as it is the same as the teacher. I am sick of it!

You seem to have already made a difference. If you can go through your years at a school like that and come out the other side with a sense of humour and KNOW that you don't think the way they tried to make you think, then you've won. Anyway, I'm dead envious of you as 18 is a great age - you can tear out the pages of the book of life and start with a clean sheet. Try to ignore all the panicky, unfamiliar strangeness of the world after school. Everyone feels it and everyone seems to muddle through somehow. Enjoy.
By the way, I was searching under 'Festival' and your bit on Reading came up. I'm a bit in two minds about going to a festival this year after the last Glastonbury but maybe Reading will be late enough to miss the sludge. Anyway, Reading's pretty cool because the people who go actually like music more than drugs.
It's all the little links and jumps that make h2g2 thing worth coming to. Have a cool summer!