International Baccaluareate, anyone?

For the past four years, my life has been dedicated to strenuous hours of homework. In addition to that, I have had to accumulate at least 150 service hours, maintain a job, and preside over an extremely active club. Up until this year, I hated it. I asked myself every single day why I put myself through this torture. While other students had 2 or 3 electives, IB students had one. I thought that the program would not be so horrid if the homework load was all that it was. However, IB requires its candidates to be involved in gratuitous amounts of extra-curricular activities. For me, I dedicated my time to Drama Club. For one year, I actually took up Track and Field. At my small public high school, the majority of each club and activity consists of IB students. Well, every activity except for football. Nonetheless, we dominate the school's extra-curricular activities. This is my last year (thank goodness), but I don't hate it anymore. I have become a goal-oriented individual with a desire to pursue a higher education. I have encountered an unbelievable amount of people who have conceded to not even having the drive to do their homework or pass their classes. As strenuous as the International Baccalaureate Program is, I do believe that if more people had the opportunity to take it, our youth would turn out much better. I honestly never thought that I would say this, because I detested this program for the longest time. I often referred to it as a formidable beast that was designed to drive students to insanity. I didn't know that this "formidable beast" would transform me in such a way. The reason why I may have grown to appreciate it this year may be because of our Theory of Knowledge (TOK) class. In TOK, we are forced to open our minds to different perspectives, ways of knowing, and even international problems that many Americans are not aware of or choose to ignore. IB does not aspire to simply prepare a student for college, but it strives to further educate the person in all aspects of life, both internationally and nationally. We are not just bookworms, but we are also leaders. The purpose of our CAS hours (creative, action, and service hours) is not to make our lives more difficult, but to get us involved. It allows us to be able to have something that we enjoy, because when a person is spending 5 hours a night on homework, it is healthy to have something that he can indulge in. I truly appreciate what this program has done for me, and I hope that every senior in IB right now is having a revelation similar to this. It's making things easier, especially when IB exams and language orals are coming up. This has been the most stressful and satisfying year... And it is almost over.