Grades. School. Success. All I hear from my mom every single day. It has come to a point that I’m absolutely disgusted by hearing those three words. I’m trying my best to do all I can at school and missing out on fun at such a young age. It has made me so annoyed with having to get all A’s and if not, being seen as a failure. Although I have that weight from my mom on me, my brother’s perspective on success and life says otherwise. Throughout our life we come across many positive and negative life situations. However, many of those positives can make a huge difference to us.Being the youngest has brought the ability to observe everyone else’s life. Cousins being able to go to birthday parties, sleepovers, and hanging out with friends has made me think about how different my life was from everyone. While everyone was out doing normal activities, my mom would not allow me because “a B is not going to take you anywhere in life.”I really just wanted to have fun, but I couldn’t be a disappointment so I would do whatever it took to ace my test, not having the advantage to do fun stuff.
All throughout elementary and middle school I would revolve my life around school. All of this changed when one of my most successful brothers changed my view on life and success.With such a heavy weight of pressure at twelve years old, I started to notice how my brother who was successful in his career, would be so collected and do fun stuff. Yet, he was so successful in his job. I was in awe. He took time off from work to enjoy life to the fullest by camping, traveling, and seeing old friends, yet was in the top three in his job.
One summer he had taken one to a trip as an early birthday gift to the Winchester House. On the way to the trip he noticed how I was on my phone trying to finish homework. He asked me if I was doing homework on a trip, and I said “yes,” causing him to lock my phone away. He explained that being successful in school is important, but there are moments where you have to take a break for yourself because at one point you will break yourself from overwork.He explained, “You’ll be successful as long as you have the passion and take care of yourself. Your career will be great. But living life at your fullest potential is not to be taken for granted since you’ll grow old and never be able to say you’ve had fun in your early years.”Ever since that trip, it had clicked with me that I can’t be this boring person that only focuses on school, but be that person who takes adventures and challenges herself outside of school.
This has made me the person who I am now. Loving to go camping to new places and trying new things besides school has made me become a bigger person. Although school is important and I keep up with my grades, outside of school I try to have as much fun as I can before it’s too late to be able to do things that I could’ve done at such a young age.