Students 2.0

Hello, I’m a 3.6 and 2100 on my SAT’s.

The further into my high school career I go, the more my face, name, and personality gets traded out for a couple of numbers. It seems as though modern high school is becoming less about personal growth through learning, and more about preparing your resume for Dream College.

Even before high school, college always seemed like it was the end of the road; it was something that was always on my mind, sometimes stressful, sometimes very exciting. In middle school, I made a video about where I wanted to be in four years. Looking back on it, I cringe. I quote my mock senior year statement:

Well, I am a high school senior now! I got a 4.0 unweighted, and I got a 1500 on my SATs. High school was great. There was a lot peer pressure to go to parties and have sex, but I tried to stay away from all that. I set the state record for the high jump, and have 8 varsity letters in 2 different sports, and I’ve acted in 3 plays. I’m the captain of the debate team, and I’m the editor for the school newspaper. I also got into Princeton, Stanford, Yale, and UCLA.

“Um, what?”, I think now. Who did I think I would become? Who is this person, and when do they have time to breathe? Did I think high school was like Gilmore Girls? Yes, actually, I did... but let’s keep that a secret.

Freshman year was this impossible dream attempting to be lived out, because I thought it was necessary for me to get into that Dream College. Unable to see outside myself, I had tunnel vision on my one goal of getting into Dream College. Learning was important to me, but secondary to the grade I got in the class. Obsessed with getting all A’s, I studied non-stop in the library and at home. I practiced for the notorious SAT, three years ahead of time.

My perspective has shifted since then. The closer I get to college, the more I see that college isn’t this big illustrious dream like it was in middle school and freshman year. It’s kind of like seeing a giant walking on the street and realizing later that it wasn’t that the giant was big, but rather that the street was small.

People (specifically those who are most influential in my life) tell me (good-heartedly, with the best of intentions) that in order to get far in life x, y, and z need to happen, letting x=good grades/good resume, y=prestigious college, and z=good (read: well-paying) job. Though it may be partially true, is that the kind of limiting dream that students should have? Where is the room for growth, experimentation, living? Why does society set these parameters for success?

The path of x, y, and z has been stomped clean of passion, of adventure.

This is something that has been so rigorously conditioned in students: fear of the unusual. This is because the unusual is sometimes regarded as “failing,” at least at the time. For 13 years we go to school, learn curriculum, take tests, read books, etc., all within the context of x, y, and z. Each year we are taught about facts and figures, and tested on them—with the importance being placed on the good score. We get good grades, graduate from elementary, then middle, and finally high school. Mistakes are counter-intuitive to students growing up in the school system, because mistakes are usually connected to the Big Red Pen of Death (bad grades).

What I’ve painfully learned through my own mistakes: it’s easy to live the expected and conventional. It’s when you live the unexpected that you start having fun with your life.

Left with a fresh canvas and a complete set of crayons, I plan to take my own future in my hands, all the while retaining who I am—not my numeric representation.

But what do the rest of you plan to do?

1. Original artwork by Lindsea