Why is it that some college dropouts, even high school dropouts end up way more successful than the average college or high school graduate? Is it luck or connections? Who's to say it isn't both?
In reality, the fact is that those people have a thing called tenacity. It is needed to achieve what one wants no matter how difficult it it may be. I've been thinking about why some obviously bright students get such dim grades? Are they just unlucky or they have all the wrong teachers? No. These low results are because there is nothing to work for, there are no goals set. A person could be the most tenacious one you will ever meet, but you wouldn't know it just by looking at their report cards.
Report cards are sterile; they are impersonal indistinguishable, and cursory. Ask anyone, what can you tell me about a person from their transcript? Besides what electives they took and a number on a scale, it is nothing. No wonder colleges ask for a personal essay. Some students get into a university because of that essay, because percentiles, ranks and GPA's have nothing but numbers to offer. Colleges want a good fit for them, and the factor that decides that, is not a number on a scale, it is the essay. Those great essays that stick out are written by those tenacious people because they want to go to that college. Since they had a set goal in mind, it didn't matter that their GPA wasn't as high as the average accepted student at that college, and it didn't matter that their ACT or SAT scores weren't quite up there, their essay was exemplary.
The bottom line is that these people need something of value to work towards. A set bar to push, a purpose. Otherwise, isn't it like endlessly going through motions that just get more and more arid each time through?Having tenacity means that a want becomes a need, and obstacles are merely bumps in the road to that need.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Rachel M + Justine G
Rachel M
Again and again. It is official that the similarity of our thought processes have gone past eerie. I always find many of my own thoughts in Rachel's writing, and vice-versa. It is interesting how she develops the thoughts that have occurred to both of us because I do not always end up in the same exact direction. After all, we are not the same person and we have both been influenced differently yet we have similar thought patterns. Very interesting..
Rachel I love how you and I unconsciously vibe off of each other. It seems that in every blog one of us writes, the other has thought about the same things in similar ways. I have thought about how in middle school we were riding it out until graduation and high school the same way. Now that the end is near I am thinking about the next "end" instead of the much closer "beginning". And about the theory of time bending back on itself and forming a continuous circle, the fact that everything from history to fashion to behavior repeats itself continuously is proof that you and Einstein are right.
Justine G
I see Justine six out of seven days of the week regularly and her blogs continue to surprise me. We have talked about just over a million and a half things yet I keep reading more and more new thoughts and opinions that I have not heard from her. Reading these blogs, I get to know her better which is something I did not think very possible since we know each other so well already. I guess we are both just full of surprises :D
To add on to your system theory, not only do we keep it going, we created it for ourselves which makes it that much harder to change it. Admitting that the world that has been created for us is flawed is difficult because it is going against the status quo. No matter how hard some people fight not to conform, in the end they do because it is human nature to do so. Conformity breeds familiarity which makes us feel secure. I guess we would rather keep going in an imperfect world than to start searching for a new reality for ourselves.
Again and again. It is official that the similarity of our thought processes have gone past eerie. I always find many of my own thoughts in Rachel's writing, and vice-versa. It is interesting how she develops the thoughts that have occurred to both of us because I do not always end up in the same exact direction. After all, we are not the same person and we have both been influenced differently yet we have similar thought patterns. Very interesting..
Rachel I love how you and I unconsciously vibe off of each other. It seems that in every blog one of us writes, the other has thought about the same things in similar ways. I have thought about how in middle school we were riding it out until graduation and high school the same way. Now that the end is near I am thinking about the next "end" instead of the much closer "beginning". And about the theory of time bending back on itself and forming a continuous circle, the fact that everything from history to fashion to behavior repeats itself continuously is proof that you and Einstein are right.
Justine G
I see Justine six out of seven days of the week regularly and her blogs continue to surprise me. We have talked about just over a million and a half things yet I keep reading more and more new thoughts and opinions that I have not heard from her. Reading these blogs, I get to know her better which is something I did not think very possible since we know each other so well already. I guess we are both just full of surprises :D
To add on to your system theory, not only do we keep it going, we created it for ourselves which makes it that much harder to change it. Admitting that the world that has been created for us is flawed is difficult because it is going against the status quo. No matter how hard some people fight not to conform, in the end they do because it is human nature to do so. Conformity breeds familiarity which makes us feel secure. I guess we would rather keep going in an imperfect world than to start searching for a new reality for ourselves.
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