What Would Your Senior Yearbook Quote Be? by Farheen

What Would Your Senior Yearbook Quote Be? by Farheen - November 2018 Scholarship Essay

“If you cannot impress them with your intelligence, baffle them with your bulls***.”

My first response upon hearing these words had been the realisation of how true it rang in my ears, followed by a good thirty seconds of laughter. Anyone will believe anything you say if you say it with enough conviction. It is my belief that being right is not always essential to score a win, especially against people who do not care whether you are right or not; confidence is key. These words received a definition when Elle Woods (Legally Blonde, 2001) made up law lingo and threw a random selection of legal terms at Paulette’s ex-husband, an abuser and a bully. This scene resonated with the truth of the above given statement. He was so stunned by her “knowledge” that it did not matter whether she was right or not, and he did not know if she was- her goal had been attained; she got the dog.

Although the humour is not lost in this statement, there is a darker side to it too. Oft times, we may find ourselves on the receiving end of this sham, the ones being fed the irrelevant material. Not necessarily wittingly, but this deception has seen itself pass many a times in history, turned into propaganda even; where people blinded themselves to the reality. Nazi Germany should survive as such an example in recent history.

In lieu of the two interpretations given for the above mentioned senior yearbook quote, it is in our favour to always appraise different sides of any situation, lest we fall prey to deceit and atrocity.