Ah, the IB. For those who don't know, the IB stands for International Baccalaureate. It's a 2 year high school diploma program which is mostly done in international schools, but has gained some popularity in the states. I am a surviver of the IB...barely.

1. For the first week after exams, you wake up in a panic with the feeling that you should be working on a project and studying, but then remembering you are finished.

I vividly remember waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, feeling like I had things to do, like complete my extended essay. But then after you realize, you can go right back to sleep.

2. Waiting nervously for your IB results, at this point just hoping you passed/got enough points to get into your college.

We all remember when we first started the IB and we were all optimistic thinking we would get 35 points or something. But by the time we reached the end of the final IB exams, all we wanted was to pass/ get enough points to get into the college of our choice.

3. The summer between senior year of high school and freshman year of college was super relaxing.

There was suddenly so much free time, that you almost didn’t even know what to do with yourself. Some people went to parties (or bars if it was legal in your country), some people had sleepovers and hung out with friends, others went to concert, and others spent time with family and planning the move they would have to make to head out for the next phase of their life.

4. If you have younger siblings about to enter the IB, you feel bad for them, but also want to watch them suffer as you did.

My little sister who was only 2 years younger than me, was going into her junior year (the start of the IB for my school), while I went into my first year at college. I felt for her, knowing she was about to dive into an incredibly stressful time. But also, I was ready for her to do it so I could say “See, not so easy is it?” since she always said “It can’t be that bad.”

(In all honesty, my sister is killing the game with the IB and I’m super proud of her.)

5. Getting to college, and finding that everything is super easy.

I remember the first couple weeks of class go by so incredibly fast. It was super easy breezy. The papers I had to write where nothing compared to what I had written before, and the actual content of the work I was doing wasn’t exactly super complicated. (Disclaimer I do go to an arts college, so I can’t speak for every college experience.)

6. When people freak out about 1,000 word essays, you laugh.

We as IB students, are so used to writing 1,000 word essays in a class period. Heck the EE was 4,000 words. When other students in my year were freaking out about some of the papers they had to write, I tried to feel sympathy… I really did. But if it’s a 2 page paper DOUBLE SPACED. Seriously I can do that in about an hour.

7. When you first introduce yourself, you have the urge to state your full name and your candidate number.

I don’t really think about it so much anymore, but for the first couple months after the IB whenever I introduced myself, there was this little urge in the back of my brain to say “Hi, my name is Megan Graham and my candidate number is _______.” Heck, I’m not going to lie, that phrase has haunted my dreams.

8. Sometimes you have war flashbacks to those IB days, where things like EE, CAS and TOK inspired dread and fear.

This normally happens in the middle of the night. Whenever I talk about my IB days, I can feel my body tensing back up. Whenever I talk to my sister, and she talks about all her assignments and such, I can feel myself going back in my memory, and those are memories I don’t want to relive.

9. But you also have insane stories you can tell people when they are feeling stressed.

For example, the couple times I ended up saying for 36 hours and my brain actually felt broken. Or that time I had 3 projects due the next day, so I stayed up all night doing them and I ended up drinking 11 cups of tea (for reference my mug is about as large as my head) and still went to school. OR that time I was trying to write my EE and had a breakdown, with full sobs and snot and everything, but still continued to type!

10. While you admit that the IB was worth it, you would rather eat your own leg then go back.

I am definitely a better student because of the IB. It taught me time management, how to research, taught me different ways of thinking and gave insight to how I manage my stress. I’m glad I did it for sure. But if someone said to me “Would you rather redo the entire IB, or cut your leg odd with a butter knife and then eat it?”...

Well, let’s just say I will look into prosthetic limbs.