Fun Fact about Sandy: She loves dancing around to her iPod Shuffle as she walks the dog early in the morning
More Than Just a Student
October 17, 2005
When I was a little kid, I would tell people "My birthday's coming soon!" and they would ask me, "Oh really? When is it?" and I would say "October 15th," and we would probably be somewhere in August. I would get so excited that I would start counting down the days a month before the actual date. My mind was constantly thinking how fun it would be, and now, as we're getting dangerously close to the date, I don't really have time to concern myself with it.
I go to school five days out of the week. I want to make the best of those days. It's important to be an accomplished student (AP, honors), yadda yadda... but I know now that it's equally as important to be an accomplished person. By person, I mean the girl I am when I'm not in class—maybe the person talking to lonely seniors in nursing homes, or the girl organizing human rights rallies in her neighborhood, or maybe that person helping little kids glue crafts together in a volunteer center.
That is what matters to me—using my high-school years to learn about myself. I'm taking Creative Writing in place of an AP science, and my friends stare at me when I say I'm applying to Ivy Leagues. It used to bother me that I wasn't following the "guidelines to college", but I feel that I am just as competitive an applicant as my friends who have all AP/honors classes. Universities are places of learning, I often remind myself, and they want students who are smart, yeah, but who also have a drive to do more than study—students who will make an impact on society and will start by taking charge of the campus. It means initiative. It means excellence. It means more than just turning in homework and passing tests.
I'm not bashing AP courses, by the way. Taking advanced classes is awesome, but the bad part is that it's possible to go overboard. What I define as "overboard" is when you have so many AP's you lose your drive. You don't have time to join clubs, have fun, hang with friends, or do community service. In other words, you don't have time to be a person. You're just a student.
Still, stuff happens. Sometimes I get overwhelmed, and I start to hate school, maybe even hate life. When that happens, I stop whatever I'm doing and I leave. It isn't all that glorious, but it works. Sometimes it's impossible to get things done on time, so what? Life is unpredictable, I just got to learn to deal with what it brings me. I can still have a life, even if I'm making myself an "accomplished student." I can have my cake and eat it too! That reminds me, my birthday's coming up pretty soon.
I guess I better start counting down the days.