emotional support needed: post-HSC formal recognition

[melodamn]

Hey everyone. I recently sent this to my teacher which I’m pretty tight with, in a teacher-student kind of way (to clarify!!), but I thought that maybe ATARnotes could probably help as well:

“In this post-HSC life I have been wondering about formal awards and recognition, and the HSC, and the philosophical meaning of accomplishment. I have grown up valuing formal awards and recognition as truly one of my only sources of validation, and it really sucked emotionally not to get any of that (even though I know formal awards and recognition is only attained through hard work and excellence, of which I did not exhibit nearly as much as my peers, this year)

How do you deal with the disappointment of lack of accomplishment at the end of the HSC? When you finished the HSC did you feel that kind of deflation because you had put work into the hsc without any kind of validation or recognition, even from yourself?”

Some context: it might get a little -TMI- but I’m quite open about my mental health journey. My mental health got real bad in year 11. In April of this year I tried to KMS and ended up in a psychiatric teen ward for 2 weeks. I’ve made a steady yet rapid recovery (it’s only really been like 8 months and I’m really proud of myself). I was also formally diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder.
SO, to sum it up: I’ve had a tough year.

And despite these personal obstacles, I’ve worked hard to do moderately well in all of my subjects, as well my two major work projects.

I’m not looking for sympathy or anything. I’m just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this same kind of post-HSC deflation?

Thanks in advance ♥️✨

[S200]

Hey there!
A few points;
a.) I'm a VCE'er so the perspective might be a little different.
b.) I haven't personally experienced similar mental health difficulties, so again, perspective might be different.

That's said...
I also felt like I performed very mediocre this year, particularly in my English exam. Being my first exam, this put me in a bad mental frame for further revision for following exams. After exams were done I spent a lot of time thinking over what went wrong, and throwing what-ifs out there. But the major thing I realised from it was that beating myself up for past errors didn't change them.
I had pinned most of my failures on English (which is unfair of me, to say the least), so over the past few days I have been learning German. I guess it's kind of a denial strategy thing, basically “I stuffed this language so I'm gonna learn this other one...”
Hopefully this will tide me over until ATAR release, which will either confirm or deny my Mediocrity.

Tl;Dr? I know we just finished 13 yrs of learning, but voluntarily indulging in something that you are interested in can be a way of helping with post-HSC deflation, along with a multitude of chillaxing that comes with having finished school...

Hope this helps, but if it doesn't,  please be free to tell me so!

Edit; I just realised that I hardly answered your question, but I don't know exactly how to answer it rn..

[melodamn]

Hey there!
A few points;
a.) I'm a VCE'er so the perspective might be a little different.
b.) I haven't personally experienced similar mental health difficulties, so again, perspective might be different.

That's said...
I also felt like I performed very mediocre this year, particularly in my English exam. Being my first exam, this put me in a bad mental frame for further revision for following exams. After exams were done I spent a lot of time thinking over what went wrong, and throwing what-ifs out there. But the major thing I realised from it was that beating myself up for past errors didn't change them.
I had pinned most of my failures on English (which is unfair of me, to say the least), so over the past few days I have been learning German. I guess it's kind of a denial strategy thing, basically “I stuffed this language so I'm gonna learn this other one...”
Hopefully this will tide me over until ATAR release, which will either confirm or deny my Mediocrity.

Tl;Dr? I know we just finished 13 yrs of learning, but voluntarily indulging in something that you are interested in can be a way of helping with post-HSC deflation, along with a multitude of chillaxing that comes with having finished school...

Hope this helps, but if it doesn't,  please be free to tell me so!

Edit; I just realised that I hardly answered your question, but I don't know exactly how to answer it rn..

Hey S200, thanks for replying!

That is some good advice. I guess the basis here is learning a new skill to affirm confidence! I hope the German goes well.

I have a ukulele that I’ve been meaning to learn! I think I will tackle it down and learn how to play like a pro

Thanks!