Entering high school, I had a plan. I would join a handful of clubs that interested me, and then become a leader in those clubs, as well as taking the hardest classes I could. This is what would get me into college. And needless to say, it worked. I ended up getting accepted into my top choice of school, Florida State University, and I do not regret the challenging actions that were required to get in.
What I did not know is that while these accomplishments ended up looking very nice on my resume, there was a whole other dimension that could never be spelled out on paper. Leading multiple clubs takes a lot of time, and so does taking hard classes. But not only do they take time, they build connections. You end up meeting some of your best friends, you find your passions for leading others and you push yourself to do some hard and sometimes crazy things.
For whatever reason, I had assumed that after high school things would get easier. My mentality was simple: work hard now, take it easy later. Boy was I wrong. As high school gave me more and more responsibilities, I realized that this was never going to end. College is definitely not the place to hit the brakes, nor is the workplace. High school has not been the place to get the “hard stuff” over with – it has been the place to start the rest of my life. This is where you learn what you struggle with, how you deal with hours and hours of work a day and how to communicate and collaborate with other people. North has built the building blocks of my future career, but it has also given me so many opportunities.
At this school, I have been able to volunteer, write articles, make music and meet people that want to do that too. Moving on from this place, I am able to take with me so many new skills, passions, as well as people to lean on and continue growing closer with in the future. While colleges do look at what you’ve done when contemplating your acceptance, only you know what you have really taken from that experience.
Our band director, Mr. Dobbeck, used to always ask this question: Is your brain a bucket you want us to fill, or a tool you want us to use? In my experience, you must go into any experience with the idea of both. You can gain an exponential amount of knowledge by listening to what others say and what they have learned, but you cannot forget that you have had experiences too. Use the knowledge you have taken from people across all walks of life to find unique solutions to problems, to understand what others are going through, and to use your experiences to fill other people’s buckets.
“Life is hard.” This is something everyone has heard, and it is something that is inevitably true. Life is not easy. But the harder you work, the more you dedicate yourself to doing what you think is truly best for your life and the life of those around you, the better this hard life will be. There is no easy route – there is no time that things will get easier, that things will settle down. If you are doing it right, life will have plenty of challenges that you must face, and plenty of opportunities to celebrate them. If I have learned anything in my four years at North, it is that life is hard, but the only solution is to work harder. Have I been perfect in executing this? Of course not. But it is something that I try to keep in the back of my mind, and something I thank other people for reminding me of. As our Honest Abe said, “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
