Thinking of my high school Time
My high school time and in general teenager hood was a very dark, unpleasant and pretty stressful period of time in my life. It was only three or four years after Islamic regime got established in Iran following the revolution in 1979. We had to go to girls only high school. And of course, so did boys. Wearing scarves was mandatory for girls and a tiny bit of makeup had big consequent. The country was in war with Iraq and I remember graduating from high school and doing final exams of G12 under bombardment and rocket attack by Iraq. Those days fleeing the city, going to the rural areas to seek shelter was normal. Specially the nights that the chance of attack was at the highest and most people evacuated the capital. I do remember studying for my final exams in inside my dad’s car nusing the little light on its ceiling. I graduated high school under those circumstances and entered university in the same year while the country was still in war and things were not any better.
Quite often I think I would be a much happier person if I had not gone through such a dark and twisted teenager hood and youth, both at home and at school (Society), which are ultimately related and influence one another. I remember having a boyfriend was a taboo, even after high school years. Obviously since there was no smartphones or even just simply cellphones, the single home phone was the only way I could be in contact with the secret boyfriend if I was lucky enough to be the one answering the phone. I am pretty confident that over 90% of teenagers four decades ago had same issues I had to deal with. The issues that were much worse for girls than boys. What I went through all those years led me to a major depression around my mid 20’s and without any doubt I was not alone in that experience. Immigrating to Canada in my early 30’s, was more a freedom shock rather a cultural shock! Something that I had not experienced in my past 31 years of living by then.