Worthy of J.R., that one!Rory wrote:I'm feline pretty good too - better watch out for Shoz tho...
I had to paws to check who actually wrote it.........
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Munch you are in the barrel with a lot of us - and I still feel that someone is shooting in - I have never achieved according to my unloving & hateful father - and part of me still feels even with the stupid illness I have that I will be remembered more for what I didn't do than for what I did.Angela Woodford wrote:I do wish that I had seen it.
I believe it to be possible that somebody who had become a bit unhinged at Hertford might go on to unexpected/unpredictable behaviour, after 5 -7 years of institutionalisation. My parents (and I came from a family where I was loved, valued and cared for) had such great expectations of me when I won an LCC Scholarship. Year after year, I failed to have any of my abilities recognised - except for (quote DR in my final report - just dug it out from under the stairs) "Angela has been cheerful and friendly throughout her school days". This still makes me feel a sort of anger. DR had no idea how terribly underachieving I was feeling, and was in no way an accessible Headmistress to me, as "Half To Remember" would have her readers think.
And at last an acknowledgement of the anxiety that haunted me - what was I going to do? Quote Miss Mercer from same report "Angela has been unsettled about her future this term, and this has affected her work. She should recover her buoyancy and flair in time".
For those of us who never had their talents acknowledged, who felt less than adequate compared with the Official Star Girls: who had the self-esteem kicked out of them by their seniors - well, I'm speaking up.
And I'm afraid, for the suicide attempts and runnings-away by several girls, so glibly dismissed in DR's memoir. And remembering the girl confined in the Maid's Room by Millie.
I myself worked hard after leaving to try to believe that I was a worthwhile person and, though not talented in any way, could still live a useful life. Some may have overcome that bitter feeling of failure; some may not and compensated in other ways.
Munch
Kerren, Kerren! Know how I remember you? You were a supremely confident Senior, extremely efficient, always one of the good guys, and a sort of sporting goddess!kerrensimmonds wrote:I think there must be something wrong with me......But I never felt inferior to anyone, I just got on with life, swallowed its disappointments and moved on. I think this probably means that I am shallow. I was given the opportunities - even if I did not make as much of them as my (initially) proud parents might have hoped.
I felt very much the same about CH for a variety of reasons. Many years later, and after serious illness and therapy, I realised that you can't escape the past or change it, but you can change your current attitude and relationship to things that happened and actions you took. And of course none of us know what might have happened if we'd gone elsewhere to school. It might have been better for us. But equally we may have come out a lot worse. When I think of my time at CH now, I think of the wonderful music department and the opportunities the staff afforded me there (particularly David Elliott) and how happy I was in the band and the choir. Those are the memories I try to hang on to. And if I hadn't pursued the music path, I would never have met my husband all those years later.J.R. wrote:I must admit to despising CH for many, many years after leaving, and it wasn't until our own daughters were reaching teenage years, I realised just how much good the school did for me and maybe I should have tried harder academically.