The 2016 Man by Joshua

The 2016 Man by Joshua - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken/Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,/Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,/And stoop and build ’em up with worn out tools…you’ll be a Man, my son!-Rudyard Kipling. My biggest resolution for this coming year is to become a man. Not for the sake of modernity or even family, but for myself.
This coming year is the one in which I graduate high school, begin college, get my license and, yes, turn 18. All in which one would consider key elements in the making of a man. For me, though, I want to become a man in my own right. I don’t want what the law says is legal to define me as a man. I want to take all the things from the past 17 years that crippled my mindset as a child and turn them into something worth living for. Take the lies, sorrow, anger, resentment and even the joyous times and completely let it all go. I believe that in doing so I will become the best student I could possibly be.
As a child I experienced a lot of things that I don’t talk about. I don’t like to relive the points in my life that hurt me. For instance, when people see me for the first time they see a bright young man educating himself. They don’t see the boy that slept on the kitchen floor with his brothers in the winter. Or the boy who has had to fight so much that it has become almost a second nature. My entire life I have been trying to hide those things from people. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that coupled with all the success that I have had in life, these things that seem horrendous actually make me who I am. They have inadvertently molded me into a person that values knowledge over everything (Except of course, family and loyalty).
In terms of academics, all I ever wanted was the chance to show people that I am worth their time and money. Becoming a man will help me let go of all the childish commodities that defined me. I will be able to focus more on my academics rather than girls. I would put more time into my studies rather than putting it into trying to lure in the next girl. My mom always told me “That long red hair will always make you blind to the importance of life.” Sadly she was right. I guess at some point it would be nice to indulge in the pleasantries of a nice woman, but right now education is at the forefront of 2016.
Someone once told me that a man is someone who is old enough to buy cigarettes and alcohol. They couldn’t be further from the truth. My definition of a man I believe was best defined by Kevin Bacon when he said “Being a man is learning to take responsibility for your successes and for you failures.” Through being a better student I hope to have far more successes than failures. 2016 is the year that I proclaim will be the beginning of better finances, education, faith and health for all.