A Cup of Pure Agony. :
Hi, Katya! I hope it's not too late for me to chime in, I went through pretty much the exact same thing. I was in IB too and somehow survived it. My mum was the one who put me in those super expensive schools, but she was also really abusive, she’d throw slurs at me, harass me at home, the whole thing. At school I got bullied hard because my Indonesian wasn’t fluent back then, so I missed a ton of days in the first year. IB is such a capitalist mess honestly. So expensive, so ridiculously demanding, it feels genuinely inhumane sometimes. I tried talking to my counselor about everything but it was just… hard. There was no real way out, I just had to keep going with no knowledge of how to cope with it :)
I tried to speak to my counselor, to name the heaviness, but the walls felt thick and the way out seemed impossible. I graduated in 2023, still carrying the mess of it all, yet somehow I survived. Getting through that curriculum felt less like finishing school and more like walking out of an apocalypse with my spirit still intact 😂 I never found a clever escape or a perfect solution; I simply endured, day after day, until the days themselves became the way through. Now I study abroad, just as the program once envisioned for me. The tears were many, and in some moments they felt like they cost more than any diploma could repay, no child should ever have to carry such a burden.
So I send this with all the love I can gather. I hope you are finding softer ground now. Every young heart deserves safety, kindness, and room to grow without fear. And I want you to know how deeply proud I am of you, Katya, for surviving, for still standing, for carrying your story with the courage it took to live it. You are not alone in this. May the years ahead treat you with the gentleness the past withheld. <3
2026-08-27 08:47:30