The Best Advice I Can Give by Dylan

The Best Advice I Can Give by Dylan - March 2019 Scholarship Essay

Imagine you’re leading a tour of your high school to members of the incoming freshmen class. What's one piece of advice you would give these students? 200-900 words
If I were leading a tour of my high school to the incoming freshman class, I feel that I would be able to offer them many great pieces of advice when it comes to what they can do in order to have the best experience possible at my school. Being a part of my school for four years, I have a pretty good idea of how to get around the place and how to behave in it. Though, if I had to choose one single piece of advice, I would say: "Don't let other students heavily influence you because you won't ever see them again after four years. When you leave this place, you're going to go one way and they are going to go another way." See, if you allow people to influence you, then you are allowing other people to determine who you are. You're allowing other people to make you into the person they want you to be, not the person you are meant to be. You can share interests with people and even share views with people, but don't ever feel a certain way about something just because other people feel that way(for example, don't think that a certain person in your class is a nuisance simply because other people think so). Make judgements based on your own perception and personal experiences. Don't participate in an activity just because your friends are doing it (whether the activity is a positive activity such as a sport or a negative activity such as drugs/alcohol). Only participate in that activity if you want to do it (but don't get involved with drugs or alcohol whether it was your decision or not. I've seen people at my school have their whole lives ruined because of one or both of those two things). You see, in the future, you're going to be in a whole different setting with entirely new people. Most (if not all) of the people you associate with in high school will not be a part of your life when you are older. By the time you get a job and are out of school, you will have become acquainted with new people and completely forgotten about the friends you saw everyday in high school. Don't let the decisions you make around your friends in high school affect you for the rest of your life. Those decisions could, in the future, keep you from getting a job, keep you from going to the college you want to go to. A second piece of advice (and this one is honestly even more important than the first): don't let social media take control of your life. I; myself, have never been a big proponent of social media. I rarely posted a picture or hit a like button during my entire high school career. Why? Well, I just wasn't worried about social media (and never will be). I saw no need to get caught up in it. I felt that it was an unnecessary waste of time and not very interesting at all. Do I (did I in high school) have social media accounts? Yes. Though, I can honestly say that I get on them once a month, at the most (unless I need to contact some of the friends I have on Snapchat whose phone numbers I do not have). Do I regret not being on social media nearly as often as most of my peers are? Not for a second. I am glad that I didn't consume hours of my time looking at posts and hitting like buttons or sending messages. I was able to enjoy many other things in life because of the time that I didn't waste on inconsequential things like social media.