Life Lessons by Immad

Life Lessons by Immad - August 2015 Scholarship Essay

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope” (Martin Luther King Jr). With everything that is going on in today’s day-and-age, difficult economic situation for many, race/equal rights issues and oppression of all sorts in all corners of the globe, I believe that it would be greatly beneficial for high school students to have a course entitled “Life Lessons”. Having started an adolescent leadership training program entitled “Voices,” I know firsthand of the need for added direction and inspiration that a typical high school student needs in order to see life in the “bigger picture”. Many times a lot of our youth, with the most earnest of intentions, try their very best to achieve their goals but fail to realize that success is a process and not just an end result. You will have trying times, in fact if you are trying to achieve something above average, you will have many, many trying times. I know of many cases where a youth’s mindset is to think, due to difficulties in life, to just give up and lose all hope. As if they are “destined” to fail.

To be perfectly frank, the onus is on us, as educators and as learned and more experienced people to continue to nurture the psychology of these young and often misguided youth minds. Let’s create a venue where high school students can put what they learn in their Biology, Math, History, English, etc. classes into their practical lives. They can either learn to stand up in times of adversity or decide to just cave in when things aren’t going as they had planned. The primary reason as to why I feel this sort of lesson plan or course is essential to a high school curriculum is the fact that it is highly practical. They can put the words that they learn in class into practice and tangibly see how it affects their world. We are all tested in our own ways but we should all be equipped with the necessary tools to take of these tests in stride. When a person has direction and goals in their lives, they are much more likely to achieve those goals and less likely to get caught in a lifelong slump of disappointments. I always say that we don’t know what he don’t know, and I think it’s time that we show our youth a little bit of what they can expect as they reach adulthood.