Getting to the Top by Crystal

Getting to the Top by Crystal - August 2018 Scholarship Essay

My education podcast is called Getting to the Top and it is about the crazy expectations and pressure that is put on students to succeed in today’s society. The pints of views range from a general perspective, to my own point of view, and to the point of view of any guests that come and tell their experiences. Each episode discusses a different aspect of a high achieving student’s life or a certain expectation society holds for students like getting in to a good college and sacrificing fun for the grades. My podcast is supposed to be relatable to every student out there because everyone experiences the pressure to succeed in some way. Through my podcast, I hope to show each listener that they are not alone in this struggle to succeed and that they have to find their own meaning for success, not follow what society says.
The most popular episode is called, “Why I Consider my Success a Failure” where I get really personal with listeners about my own struggles with being the “perfect student”. I talk about how I was always tired, stressed out, emotionally drained, and more from how the school system was set up. I earned so many honors and awards, but I was not fully happy because my body was literally about to give up on me from being sleep deprived and stress out all the time. In this episode, I wanted people to know that getting to the top is the hardest thing ever and that I experienced all the hardships despite my “success”. I doubted my abilities because I compared myself to the seemingly better people around me, there were times when I wanted to give up because I felt like I could not do what people expected me to do, and I had to sacrifice what I wanted to do for what society said I had to do. The lesson here is even the most accomplished person goes through a lot of hardships and failures. People like to think that a person must have had an easy life because they ended up being so successful when in reality, they may have had a really hard life before reaching their success.
Another popular episode is, “The Perfect Application” in which I take listeners through my experience of the stressful season of college applications. I talk about my stats, the schools I was able to get into, and answering the question of whether or not it was all worth the stress. In this episode, I try to remind listeners that students do not have to be the best at everything to get into a good college, and it is our job to stop this societal belief because it causes an insane amount of stress. I also try to make listeners understand that it is okay fail at some things because what really matters is improving upon those things. Students do not need a perfect application to look impressive in front of the admissions panel. As long as students work hard when they need to, they will get into a good school. Following the discussion about the college application, I also talk about college decisions in this episode because I want to help people stop basing their self-worth off an acceptance or rejection from their dream school. I got rejected from my top choice, but I ended up at another great school that is probably a better choice for me. Things happen for a reason and wherever a student ends up, they will do fine in life if they continue to work hard.
These are just a few examples of the kind of episodes my podcast produces. I want to help students take on their academic journey and get to the top with more confidence and a lot less stress. I want to help change the way society takes on education because of this immense pressure to succeed in just about everything. I want to start conversation on how we as a society can move education forward so that students can be the best they can be in what they want to do and make their own definition for success. Getting to the top does not mean students have to be perfect, and so society should stop expecting students to be perfect.