Personally, I too would question whether I had made the right decision in choosing Drama. In a school so intensely focused on academics, the creative arts are unfortunately looked down upon by some students. Surprisingly, there was not much backlash from my family, because over the years, I had the marks and the passion which convinced them that I knew what I was doing. So, instead of taking the safe route with high-scaling subjects like science or economics, I chose to do subjects like Japanese and drama for my senior years, even if it would potentially cost my ATAR. I was passionate about the Arts language, theatre and performance. Yet, I felt like I had to because that was what “James Ruse students did”. I didn’t want to pursue medicine, nor law. It took me 13 years to realise that I was empty. All the pressure of following in my sister’s footsteps, to be a doctor, to be successful had become too much. For years I chased after her shadow, until, I finally broke in Year 8. Growing up, I harbored great admiration yet bitterness towards my older sister she was the perfect academic who attended James Ruse, who studied law and then medicine. I was immersed in a perpetual state of competition with my peers, which skewed my perception of success.įormer James Ruse Agricultural High student Liesl Chen thrived in the creative arts.
While other children went home after school, I went to a tutoring college, while other children went to the movies on the weekend, I was at a tutoring college. Sure, I was in the extension class, I was in an OC class, I did get into James Ruse, but people fail to realise that it is not a gift. I don’t consider myself a ‘gifted’ child: never have and still don’t. When I was still a student at James Ruse Agricultural High, the immediate response I would conjure was, “Wow! You’re from James Ruse? Hello future doctor.”įast forward six years, that response has changed to “You don’t seem like a Ruse student.” Of course, because an Arts student who chooses to dye their hair, gets multiple piercings and expresses themselves through tattoos could never have been from the prestigious James Ruse, the ‘ genius factory’, where students are notoriously known for their dedication to their studies.
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