A Mandela Sized Farewell by Audra

A Mandela Sized Farewell by Audra - November 2018 Scholarship Essay

I have thought about what my senior quote would be many times. There are so many pictures floating around on the internet of funny or ironic yearbook quotes. I always thought, if my school offered it, I would come up with my own witty remembrance. But this prompt had me thinking a bit deeper about the mark I would leave with that short phrase below my picture. So, I began scouring the internet, knowing that trying to come up with my own would only end in a confusing, drawn-on catastrophe. Admittedly, I began to feel a bit dejected as many of the quotes were rather cheesy or flat-out cliché. More than anything, none of them truly emphasized what I wanted to say. Until I found an over dramatic landscape picture with this phrase plastered across some misty mountains: “There is no passion to be found playing small- in settling for a life less than the one you are capable of living.” - Nelson Mandela
Now, I do understand this statement is nothing revolutionary. To many, the idea it expresses is even over used. That I do not disagree. The dialect is what caught my attention. When Mandela says “There is no passion to be found playing small-” I don’t simply hear that you should “follow your dreams!” or “shoot for the stars!” I hear that there is absolutely nothing good to come from doing less than what you are capable of. As someone who has been raised as a perfectionist, this resonates with me. I am from your typical American small town which means if I want to truly make something of myself, other than become an average baseball player, I need to leave. It is a goal I have carried with me since entering middle school and finally it’s just about to be set in motion. But that is simply focusing on the first part of the phrase.
In the end, Mandela says “in settling for a life less than one you are capable of living.” Although he uses this to drive home his initial point more, I interpret it as a call to action. It’s a war horn letting me know it is time to charge. This part is saying that nothing good will come from sticking around, so you have to leave. Throughout my years of dreaming for this time to come, I have never found nor been able to say what I felt so clearly as Mandela did. It blatantly lays out the message that you should do what you want and what you are best at because anything less means you are wasting your time.
I have been fueled by relentless ambition and optimism about my future for the past seven years. This has pushed me to work hard in every subject possible to give myself the best chance of the future I want. Finally, it’s all paying off and now I need a way to explain myself and say farewell. That is why Nelson Mandela’s words would be my senior quote.