Summer has come and is nearly gone, for many this means going back to school. A place that is not loved by us that enjoy the lazy days summer. We all see it as a necessary step of life but never really take the time to question why. We see it as a benefit to our lives, but never step back to see the positive effects it has on us. I speak from the deepest levels of my personal feeling when I say this, I believe the academic part of my school life to have been completely worthless.
I graduated from my high school in 2004, and every year that has passed I see more and more how the experiences I had with my friends in those years have molded me into a person I am proud to be today. I wasn't a bad student, but the restrictive nature of a public education just isn't something I can look back on and feel proud of. What I can feel proud of is the adversity I have overcome by constantly challenging convention. Learning to convince teachers it wasn't I who had swore, or cops it wasn't me who was drunk may have not been the best thing for my life at the time. But in all honesty, if I wasn't forced into those situations in my teenage years I would not be able to manage the adversity life throws at me on a daily basis nearly as well today.
The purpose of this short article is two fold. The first is to let my readers know that I'm not some machine finding cool products and writing about them. I'm a person just like you. I've had run ins with the cops, I've gotten hammer drunk, and I've woken up not knowing where I was more times than you could believe.
The second, and most important reason, is that if you live your life honestly with yourself you'll do ok in the end. Doing well in school is just one of many routes to success. Live life within your limits, but constantly push those limits to expand your horizons. You don't need to answer to your parents in the end, you don't need to answer to your teachers, you don't need to answer to god, you need to answer to yourself. If you live your life truly believing this, you will live a very, very full life.
Be true. Be Good. Be Happy.
-Andrew
