College: The one thing every child, student, and friend is told they are going to attend one day. Personally, I have known that I was going to attend college since before I can rememer. Every grade that I receieved and all the effort I put in to succeeding and doing well in school, was aimed at maintaing high grades in order to get into a top-notch school. Whether this was in elementary school working hard to get into a good middle school, or in middle school striving to get into a top-notch colelge prepatory high school, I have been working hard in order to reach that point of impressing colleges with all that I have done. Now, this isn't to say that I haven't enjoyed or benefited from the education along the way, but maintaing a good transcript has also been a primary goal. Now, I also know that I am not alone in what I am saying and that is because there are many more students out there like me.
The main problem for me arises in the fact that I have now reached that primary goal through all the hard work and late nights to get into college, but where do I go from here? I haven't heard much about what to do once I have gotten into college. Sure, you're supposed to still work hard, and earn a degree, but I wonder if I am still going to be aiming to reach the next rung on the ladder or if I am going to be actually enjoying myself in college and beyond. I have conformed so much to the societal standard of working hard and receiving a good education that I am not sure where anything else fits in. I wonder if my life will be lived continously how it is now, which is looking toward the future and making sure that everything I do now will be a stepping stone to succeed. I worry if students and children like me are brought up on too much conforming to society instead of branching out and living for oursleves, which consists of living more in the moment.
Disclaimer: Not everyone might live like what I described....
First of all, this is so beautifully written, Asia! But furthermore, I totally agree! I was also raised to perform my very best in everything (school, performing arts, ect) so that I would get into a great college. So because everything has been about getting into college, once that happens, what then? No one talks about what happens after that. How do we choose which school is the best fit for us? What do we do once we get there? I think we get so caught up in the idea of getting into college that we forget college will also be a lot of work and that once we get there, we will begin working towards getting into the best graduate school, from there the best job. We forget that life doesn't suddenly end because we've gotten into college, in fact many would argue it just begins. The question is: what will we do with it?
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