Local Teenager Looking Forward To Do-Nothing Summer After Strenuous Do-Nothing School Year

A local high school student is hoping for some reprieve this July and August after a school year that saw him put all his energy and free time into completing as little school work as possible. 

“My gaming skills have started to slip,” Ty Demmings, a seventeen-year-old student DM’d the Alliston Gerald. “I’ve learned that the classroom is not a productive place to get better.”

When discussing the main obstacles to his progress in the gaming world, Demmings cited distractions from other students, the daily announcements, and interruptions from his teachers.

Demmings refers in his profile to being a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to social media content, with a focus on Tik Tok.  

“Some people see them purely as entertainment and trash,” Demmings told the Alliston Gerald over energy drinks. “But I like to look at the deeper meaning. I see them as culture.”

When we asked Demmings to elaborate on the meaning of a TikTok video, he was unable to recall anything specifically—a problem he blames on the fragmented nature of school. According to him, it is not uncommon for a student like him to completely miss the point of a video because they are obligated to convince an adult he is texting his mom. Another frequent interruption is the school’s PA system, which comes on regularly to either play the national anthem or fundraise for cancer research.

He also argued that the quality of sleep at school is far inferior to what he believes is possible at home if he were to sleep in the bed his parents provided for him for nocturnal sleeping. The Canadian Paediatric Society recommends teenagers get around 10 hours of sleep a night—a number Demmings says is nearly impossible with all the bells in his school. At home, he could finish 10 hours of steady, interruption-free sleep by as early as 2 pm, which means he would have time to do something he’s been putting off for a long time.

“I’ve really needed to sit down with my little sister and have a conversation, at least over text,” Demmings said. “She’s got this new group of friends and they’re working on homework all the time, sometimes at home, sometimes at the library. They talk constantly about schoolwork and plans for the future. I just think she’s wasting her adolescence. She’s even talking about getting a job this summer!”