Life After School

Many students make the claim that when high school begins, they’ll start to care. High school is when it all begins to “actually” matter. Our grades start to mean something to someone other than just ourselves, our extracurricular activities are looked at to see if we would be a good fit to the colleges we will eventually apply to, and we have to find a way to stand out in the sea of thousands of other students alike in ways other than just grades.

Many of us still don’t even think about college, life after school. Focus on now, not the future. But for many of us, it consumes our mind, creeping into every little thought we have, every decision we make. How do I get to where I want to be in life?

Scrolling through YouTube, watching college decision reaction videos, letting the time pass by. It’s easy to get carried away in the lives of others. Everyone seems to have a never ending list of accomplishments, the perfect résumé. The panic starts to settle in. ‘I don’t have the top grades in my class.’ or ‘I haven’t started and successfully run three school clubs.’ To be completely honest, grades are going to matter, and activities are going to matter. But, you are a different person to every single other person out there. Your passions, hobbies, and interests will differ from the people you see every day. Forcing yourself to do activities that don’t interest you will not only lead to unhappiness, and possibly be detrimental to your mental health.

Every student applying to Harvard, or any of the top colleges, may be the captain of their debate team, play on a SEASAC sports team (or at a similar level), and have perfect grades. But what makes you different? Everyone is unique in their own way, so how can you stand out to colleges?

Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t a “fake it till you make it” scenario. Do what you love. No matter where your interests lie, take them to the next level. If you have a passion for medicine, do everything you can to learn, keep your mind fresh, keep your brain growing. Read about the latest vaccines, keep up with what’s going on around the world. Try to find internships to learn from people working in that career path, and take summer courses that interest you and help you develop past your current level of understanding. There's no use in focusing your interests in topics you aren’t passionate about, because there will be no drive or motivation to learn. Colleges see through that, but more importantly, even if you get accepted into that course you don’t even enjoy, you’ll be spending another few years developing that career path instead of taking on something you’re ready to do for possibly the rest of your life. So don’t do it just to go to the college that sounds the best; do it because you want to, and because you enjoy it.

At some point, there is bound to be a stretch of time in which you may feel that you don’t love something anymore. It’s easy to just give up. You’re going to feel like you’re not making any progress. To get past it, you just have to plow through the struggle, struggling means that you’re doing it right. If you’ve always enjoyed math as a subject, and it starts to get hard, giving up won’t get you anywhere, the motivation and the drive is more important than the subject. Taking the time to master the skill and pushing through the rough patch is what will give you the skills you need to excel and get anywhere you want to be. Often, in these cases, it’s not that you dislike the subject anymore. There’s a big difference between going through a rough patch and genuinely exhibiting no interest for a subject, and most of us tend to forget that.

So does this mean you’ll get into every college you apply to? The simple answer is no. Every college is different and looks for different things in their applicants. The only thing you can do is be the best version of yourself. Forget about the prestige and how it looks to your friends because that’s the road to a life run by others and not yourself, one where every comment someone says impacts you. Apply for universities you think will be the best fit for you, and do what you like to the best of your ability. Everything else will follow.