Dear School,

You might not remember me, I mean how would you? You've seen generations upon generations of students come and go. How many of those students' names do you remember aside from the famous alumni?

You say you do these things for our own good, yet are they really beneficial to us? Have you seen the suicide rates? The depression rates? The number of appointments students make to see the school counsellors? Have you seen the numbers?

Our sacred holidays were taken away by you. Oh, don't you dare try to deny it! We have one week of March holidays, one month of June holidays, one week of September holidays and one and a half to two months of November-December holidays. You know how important they are to us, yet you continue to give us a ton of homework.

Why can't you understand? You tell us to use the holidays to rest, but the amount of homework you give us makes it impossible to do that. And when we return with our homework not fully completed, you punish us, threatening to call our parents.

We've kept silent for long enough. It's time for us, students, to rise up and get our revenge, to end our long, silent years of suffering under you.

But we can't just get rid of you like that. No, we want you to suffer for everything you've put us through. Yes, and how do you think we did that? By taking away what matters the most to you of course.

And you must be wondering why we only kept you alive. Well, the answer is simple—seeing you suffer and grieve every day brings joy into our hearts. Do you know how satisfying it is to see you have a taste of your own medicine? Now you know how miserable and desperate we were.

You may not have taken away our children and grandchildren from us, but you took away other things. Don't believe me? Well, I'll list them out for you:
I. Our childhood
• We were told going to your place every day was supposed to be fun as we not only got to learn but also make new friends. But where were the friends? We weren't allowed to talk in class and we barely had any group activities to help us get to know one another. And recess! God, our recess is only so short and everyone is too busy queuing for food to hang out with friends. By the way, we've got our food, half the recess is gone and we have to gobble everything down before rushing off for class.
• There was no balance between work and play. Instead, it was all work, no play. You gave us an ungodly amount of homework on top of content-heavy lessons, expecting us to complete them within an unreasonably short amount of time.

II. Our parents
• You called our parents for the tiniest things, as though that would solve all your problems. You turned them against us, feeding them lies about our conduct. Have you ever tried learning our side of the story before picking up that phone? Have you truly listened before dismissing them as excuses?
• The government has already declared that grades are not the most important, but have you tried to tell our parents that? Did you even bother to move the emphasis away from grades like what the government is trying to do? Have you tried discouraging parents from going overboard? No, you have not! Instead, you encouraged them knowingly or unknowingly.

III. Our sleep
• Everyone keeps telling us to sleep earlier, but how can we sleep earlier? We have tests to study for, homework to complete, and extracurricular activities to attend. Sometimes even tuition homework as well. And when we don't complete them, what do we get? A scolding and detention.
• It's a never-ending cycle, really. Don't you see it? We stay up late completing our assignments and have to wake up early for school. As we are very tired, we fall asleep in class and get scolded by you. Then as punishment, you give us even more homework. And it happens over and over again. How do you expect things to change like this?

IV. Our mental and physical health
• Do you know how stressed we are? How much pressure everyone puts on us? You say that you went through the same thing when you were younger and that it is nothing compared to working life, but we aren't the same! We are not you. We don't learn the same things as you last time. Most of our parents can't even understand our homework when we ask them for help. Why can't you just understand that?
• You keep saying that it is a safe space and that we could tell you anything. We thought that because you were a mother as well, you would understand what we were going through, but when we finally opened up and confided in you, what did you do? You dismissed our problems and feelings as insignificant and said that we were overreacting. We felt like no one really cared about us, about how we're doing and feeling. You never asked or cared, and even if you did, we wouldn't trust you with your true feelings anymore.
• We often skip meals, choosing instead to use the time to get as much work done as possible. Due to lack of nutrition and sleep, our bodies weaken and we fall sick easily, resulting in us missing lessons. And when we return to class, you just dump the thick stack of worksheets on our table, expecting us to catch up with the class ourselves. Do you know how much more stress you put on us just by doing that? We just recovered and are trying to understand what the hell is going on in class. Then you want us to catch up on everything that we had missed by ourselves without even bothering to help? The least you could do is try and reteach the missed content to us outside of class, like during recess or after school! Maybe even record a lesson on it and send it to us! We aren't geniuses, you know, so stop assuming that we are!

V. Our life
• You say that you guys also have a life outside of us, but what about us? Where is our life? You say that we're wasting our time on our devices, social media etc, but those are the only ways that we can relax based on our schedules. We are very busy, rushing against time to complete our to-do lists before going to bed with only a few minutes break every now and then. Of course, clicking on that app, be it to play games, scroll through social media, or watch YouTube, would be the most feasible choice.

So School, here's a warning: you better watch out for you're next on the list. Do you have any idea how long I waited for this?

With no regrets,
Amethyst