Setting Myself up
The entire school system is based on success; heck, even life is surrounded by it. You do well in school, you go to college, you do great there and you can receive a great paying job. Throughout my years of school, I have been successful in the friends department, and in every aspect someone could think of. However, this has come to cause one of my biggest self-struggles, and fears.
My biggest fear is the simplest but most terrifying fear of all time: failing. I am scared of failing. It seems so stupid and ridiculous even typing it, but it’s true. I am unquestionably, undoubtedly, idiotically terrified of failing. Terrified of coming home one day and seeing the look on my parent’s face of sadness, and disappointment. Their eyes gleaming with tears boring into my eyes as I rampage through everything I could have done to avoid the situation. This is absurd to even think of, but I can’t help myself when all my life I have based my whole life’s success into one number. A number that determines where I go to college if I achieve a successful job and if I live my dream life. All this corresponding with one simple number: my GPA.
We are raising today’s children in sterile, risk-averse and highly structured environments. In so doing, we are failing to cultivate artists, pioneers and entrepreneurs, and instead cultivating a generation of children who can follow the rules in organized sports games, sit for hours in front of screens and mark bubbles on standardized tests.
— Darell Hammond
“If I don’t get an A on my next Algebra test then my GPA won’t be where is needs to be in order to get into Michigan and if I don’t get into Michigan then I will never get a good job, I will be living on the streets and die alone with thirty cats.” This is the thought process of the majority of high schoolers: If I don’t do good on everything I will fail at everything. It is horrible; the school and even parents need to loosen the ropes on teens and let us breathe the fresh air that is failing underbelly until we learn from our mistakes.
I am not saying that the school system is corrupt. All that I am saying is that just teaching students only one measure of what success is will cause their world to shatter when they do not get the grade they want to receive. Never feeling that disappointment or sorrow within me is doing injustice to myself and my future commitments. How will I ever learn from my failures and gain from them when I freak out when I get a bad grade or receive a pop quiz because I am sheltered in only knowing what success feels like.
“We are raising today’s children in sterile, risk-averse and highly structured environments. In so doing, we are failing to cultivate artists, pioneers and entrepreneurs, and instead cultivating a generation of children who can follow the rules in organized sports games, sit for hours in front of screens and mark bubbles on standardized tests.” -Darell Hammond
Live by these wise words, and they will only lead to a path of enlightenment, show the future students of the world how to fail, and show them what it feels like to be upset when the only person responsible is themselves. Let them absorb the grief and distress and teach them that it is okay to feel like this, to have a lump in your heart. Show them that lump will smooth over and things will pass.
Ilma is entering her Senior year and has been on staff since her sophomore year. She writes a little bit of everything, but really enjoys writing profiles...
