Letter on a Report Card by Jeena

Letter on a Report Card by Jeena - July 2017 Scholarship Essay

I stand on the stage of a TED talk. It is a platform that many before me had stood, explaining, persuading and revealing what we needed to know. Many of these talks expand on ideas we may not have thought of. Others reveal thoughts that we once had, but they dig deeper pulling it apart and analyzing why it matters, this is the way I would go about my TED talk. The following paragraphs explain what I most likely would talk about, hoping to persuade anyone that is willing to listen.

Prestigious colleges, angry parents, hurting students and the learning opportunities lost by the constant search for the letter on a report card. The excitement of learning is long lost after going to middle school. This was the time everyone became a robot. Studying each day, doing homework, doing classwork and participating to look as if they were truly living. The love in art disrupted by the countless hours spent pleasing parents and teachers. Running in a race thinking that the end is near, but in reality, it doesn’t exist. The finish line disappears only to reappear a mile away.

Tears drowning students. Their hearts becoming as gray as the gloomy, cloud filled skies. These robots are charged by wires in their ears. Never a moment of silence. They would listen to songs hoping that those would block out all the negative voices in their heads. Hoping the music would distract their hearts and prevent them from doing what they have passion for.

Is it really worth it? Technology has become the only way to comfort us, to distract us. Seeing the lives of others on social media has been a way to keep going. Shooting for the lives others seem to live. When looking deeper, you see that the selfies and images of people on social media are masks. We are living lies. We are living in a world so public. We are connected, yet living further apart, only separated by the very screen in front of us. It makes you wonder: Will we ever change?

The answer is simple. We need to talk again. We need to speak to these students and tell them that an education is important. Go to school, go to college, but at the end of the day, it is your choice. It is your choice what college you want to go to. It doesn’t have to be prestigious. It is your choice what you want to be. It doesn’t matter if it is unrealistic. We need to push each other into believing ourselves again because life is much more than just a letter on a report card. We are more than just robots being told what to do. We are students for life, students that choose our own paths.

I hope to end this TED talk with that. It is so important for the current generation to realize that we do have a choice. Without believing that, I feel that many people would continue to walk in a path that they don’t want to. Technology would continue to eat us up and take control, but I won’t let it. We will be strong, happy and be the ones to change the world for the better. We will build our own paths and write our own stories because we have the power.