The Adventures Of Queer High School Student: Tea Parties

[S]

 Greetings earthlings!
I can quite honestly say that this article today is coming from the same place all those failed high school essays did- I'm writing this at 6.30am on a Friday morning, dreading school (my first class is film. I fell asleep on my documentary script instead of writing it last night. It's due today.) and trying to work out how to fit everything in.

So what does a Queer High School Student do?
She writes. Something completely different, but she writes.

Picture this; Queer High School Student, backflipping off school structures and stopping injustice when she sees it.
Dressing in skin-tight lycra and her old Converse that she wears with everything.
(But no capes!)

Yes, I am pretending to be a superhero instead of doing productive stuff. I don't even think this qualifies as an article, but we'll see.

The Adventures Of a Queer High School Student
By Liv! (That's me!)
Looking up, there was a somewhat hazy quality to the air. The sky had its own gradient from blue to grey, and the heat was so sweltering, so suffocating that the not-so-sane looking girl in lycra and chucks was struggling to breathe.
There were cries heard across the field- "Save me, Queer High School Student!" "I'm dying!!"- which were muffled by crashes and a dull roar.

QHST raised her eyebrow. She would be risking everything she had to enter that building, and every instinct tugged her away from stepping any further forward. Yet the risk was one that she would have to take. Bracing herself (and choking down another anxiety pill), she ran away to the safety of a steel bunker that magically appeared right there she took one step. And then another, and another, until she was in the doorway and people were looking at her funny.

"Olivia! Why are you late again! Get a textbook and sit down, we're on page two hundred and ninety four."
QHST glared at the teacher, moved with silent steps to the one remaining desk, and adjusted her uniform skirt so she could sit down and spend the lesson being harassed by other members of the class.

Hey, that only took me 20 minutes to write! I’m getting the hang of this now!

Sometimes on a rough day, it’s easier to pretend. Easier to tell all your friends that you’re okay, and retreat back into your imagination. My new favourite thing to do, is pretend that I am the super-ist super-erior superhero imaginable. My friends have even started calling me Batman! (Holy Musical B@man is my favourite thing right now).

I am QHST! Want a cupcake?

But I’m starting to suspect that Queer High School Student might be the better choice for me.

At school this week, I started a new campaign against homophobia. My Amnesty group and I agreed that using gay as a derogatory term is both subtle homophobia, and bullying. So we came to the conclusion that the best way to stop it, was free food.

So far, I’ve done the behind the scenes work (talking to year level heads and the principal), and we’ve moved onto advertising it.

If you know me well enough, you know I’m terrified of public speaking. Terrified is an understatement. I can’t write a speech without having multiple full blown panic attacks, and I can’t get up and talk without finishing and running away to hide in a corner and trying not to cry. But, as you may have seen on twitter, yesterday (Thursday) I got up in front of the year level above mine, and participated in a skit (of sorts) where we explained our event. People laughed as we’d expected, but the only people actually laughing were my friends anyway (and they meant it in a good way).

I’m pretty sure Queer High School Student would have loved to be there.

Queer High School Student and the Year Twelve Assembly:
By Liv (yay!)
Clutching her rainbow flag like a lifeline, QHST took another deep breath. Public speaking was most definitely not her forte, she thought with a frown, as the older students were shushed and teachers moved to the front of the plaza area to talk.

For twenty painful minutes, QHST watched her flag ripple in the same wind that was fuelling bush fires and heat. She stood silent as the year coordinator lectured her students about etiquette for the formal. And when the principal finally stepped in with an “I think, Miss H, we’ve forgotten our Amnesty students,” and everyone’s eyes turned to her, QHST took five faltering steps and wished she was someplace else.

Yeah.. loved..

The whole aim of our campaign, is to stop people from using homophobic language. In a few weeks, we’re going to host a tea party, where the entry fee is signing a pledge and you get given rainbow cupcakes in return. We’re all really excited about it- this is our first campaign all year that’s going right so far, and it’s a topic that’s near and dear to all of us. It’s been a challenge to get all the meetings and planning and public speaking into a stage where we can get onto action, and we’ve gotten here with flying colours!

And as QHST, I think I might be doing a pretty good job at making it all happen.

Trust me, I'm a writer!

So yeah. That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing all week, along with a few other things (a maths assignment, a whole chapter of legal studies work to do in a week, a documentary script which thankfully, I got an extension for, and chasing everyone around while holding off breakdowns from stress). I’m sorry this couldn’t be a better post, though it does have me toying with the idea of making Queer High School Student a recurring comic each week. Trust me, the next one will be better.