The second written tests of the state exam ended yesterday, but not for everyone. Artistic high school is certainly one of the most difficult, if only for its duration: 18 hours in total divided into three days, between theory and practice. We talked about it with Annalaura Alberici, a 5th BA student at Torricelli-Ballardini in Faenza.
Annalaura, are you worried?
These are busy days, but it’s perhaps the oral exam that scares me the most, because it seems like the most difficult test.
How did you prepare during the year?
I have always studied a lot, I feel quite confident, because I tried to keep up with the lessons. This certainly helped me, but some gaps are inevitable, because remembering everything is impossible. Sometimes I get a little anxious because I really want to prepare as best I can.
You started high school five years ago and shortly afterwards the closures began due to the Covid emergency. What do you remember of those years?
We certainly didn’t fully experience the school experience, a bit as if a few years of high school had been missing. I feel like I’m missing something and it goes far beyond the missed part of the program. It concerns above all the personal sphere, friendships, relationships with classmates and professors. It was a shock to start school life practically all over again after years spent locked in the house without ever seeing anyone. It wasn’t easy to dive back into the world: my classmates had changed and I too rediscovered myself different. Meeting up again, resuming lessons was nice but difficult, we couldn’t recognize each other anymore, not to mention that we had to start from scratch. After spending two years locked in the house, we suddenly found ourselves in third grade, a crucial year for high school, certainly the most explosive and difficult.
Then a bit of respite and at the end of last year the Lamone flooded. How did you experience it?
The flood did not directly affect my family unit, but many of my classmates did. I was able to see first-hand what it meant to them, and it was very heavy. Obviously, like everyone else, I went to help and above all I remember the fear in the eyes of my friends, a fear that is renewed as soon as it starts to rain. There is a fear in all of us that it could happen again and I am very sorry for this.
You will soon be declared ‘mature’: have your experiences made you stronger or more fragile?
I can’t say this, but we are the first to retake the final exams 100% after what happened last year. We will see.
Barbara Fichera
