“And here is the homework for you to prepare for the next lesson. You should analyse the political systems of the G7 nations and compare how the different types of governing a country leads to economic success. See you all on Monday and have a nice afternoon!”
Finally, Friday afternoon. For the last two hours, Max needed to listen to the most boring teacher teaching the most uninteresting subject. ‘Who the hell cares about geopolitics’, he thought. ‘I’m living my happy life here and don’t care what’s happening in the rest of the world’. Max is 18 years old and visits the St. John’s High School. It has always been difficult for him to be interested in the different subjects at school, especially those where you have to study a lot and write essays and explain your arguments. ‘Why can’t be always play football’, he thought while leaving the classroom, ‘that’s so much fun, everybody is active and it’s actually good for our health. I’m just wasting my time here.’ Being in the school’s first football team, he was always focused on training and getting on the field to practise and play. He just wants to finish school as quick as possible to pursue a career as professional football player and forever leave this cave of boredom. On his way to the bike racks he bumped into Ollie, his best friend. He knows Ollie since they were babies, there mothers are close friends and they always played together in kindergarten and in their free time.
“Hey Max, how was your class?”, Ollie asked. “Today you discussed the political impact of the G7 on the global economy, right? That’s so exciting!”.
‘Yes, it thrilled my to sleep’, Max thought. He just couldn’t grasp how Ollie could actually be interested in that stuff. Ollie was really burning for social and political sciences and is already planning his degree at the university and the following career options. In addition, he is the vice president of the schools debating club. Voluntarily. ‘Why would someone actually want to do that in their free time?’, Max thought. But besides the differing interests, Ollie was like a brother for him. He can share everything with him, and they always laugh and have a great time together.
“Oh, yeah it was as awesome as always, I mean you know how much I burn for the exciting and tantalizing discourse of nonsense”, Max responded.
“Haha I expected nothing else”, Ollie replied laughing. “You know I enjoy to mock your reluctance to deal with the actual real problems in the world. Anyway, are you up for going to the theatre tonight? They play a new show coming out and I heard it is super good and the actors are really professional.”
“Arghhhh, Ollie, come on. It’s Friday and we finally got the weekend and you want to go to the theatre? You can go there when you’re 60 and retired and take a nap in that dusty old ruin. Let’s go the pub, get some beers and get pissed to forget about all the shit of the week. Some friends of my football team are going to ‘The Lantern’, let’s join them.”
“Well, you know I’m not that much of a pub person… And in addition I don’t feel so comfortable with your friends, I always get the feeling that they think I’m a crank. I don’t know about what to talk with them.”
“That’s bullshit and you know that: you are exaggerating! They’re nice people and you guys can chat about whatever you want. Come on, let’s try it out and as soon as you are feeling uncomfortable, we’re leaving. You know what? This time you come with me and the next time you want to got to a show or discussion session, I join you, I promise.”
“Well now you are making a fool out of yourself, you say that every single time. The last time, when I wanted to go to the wine taster session, you convinced me to join you and your friends for the football match, and the time before that, you … You know, there is always something else that you want to attend to and as a consequence I’m always shorted out. Come on, man, we are best friends. I would do anything for you, even though we are fighting sometimes, but you also have to come out of your comfort zone and join me to the events I like. And it’s not even that bad, I really promise the show is great and you’ll die laughing. And afterwards we can get a pint, what do you say?”
‘Hell yeah, what do I say?’, thought Max. He hates these boring theatre shows where people are wandering around in ugly costumes and speaking in a weird language that almost sounds like some foreign stuff. But on the other hand, Ollie is like a brother to him and he doesn’t want to hurt him. And he is right, all the last times, he joined him and went out with his friends. Maybe it is indeed time to follow his wishes at this point. Especially because Ollie helped him recently getting in touch with some professional football teams. He realized it is not that easy to pursue a career as footballer and that it takes a lot of effort to get in contact with the big teams. Initially he had asked some other guys from the football club, but they are all just playing out of fun and don’t have ambition to pursue this further. Well yeah, what would he have done without Ollie… ‘So the heck with it, let’s join him’, max concluded.
“Alright, you convinced me. I’m in. But only because it’s you. My friends would jeer at met if they saw me in a theatre. So at what time do we meet?”
“Awesome! That’s cool man, I really appreciate that! Let’s meet at 6pm at the theatre, you won’t regret it, you’ll see!”
‘If friendships were just that good all the time’, Ollie thought...