I'd tell them what i was never told by Lydia

I'd tell them what i was never told by Lydia - April 2016 Scholarship Essay

There are a couple things that I would tell younger students that I wish someone would have told me when I was younger. The first piece of advice I would give to younger students is to fight the social pressure to fit in. Social pressure is the pressure to act a certain way to talk with a certain dialect that a person feels. I think everyone feels social pressure whether they are eight years old or eighty-eight years old. However, I think that students in middle school and high school feel this social pressure to a greater degree than others. Middle school and high school students are trying to figure out who they are. They are desperately searching for their identity. The social pressure can damage their developing identity. I would encourage younger students to fight against social pressure as best as they can. I do not think it is possible for someone to live their life in a way that is completely unaffected by other social pressure but I would encourage them to fight against it as much as possible.

On the reverse side of that, I would encourage younger students to listen to the advice of parents and mentors around them and to be open with these people about their feelings. I think there is a tendency for adolescents to think that they are completely alone and that no one could possibly understand how they feel. This thought, though it could not be further from the truth, often causes adolescents to push away well-meaning adults. Adolescents often feel as if they are alone when in fact they are rarely alone. They separate themselves from other. I would tell younger students to talk about their feelings with adults and peers that they trust, because often they are not as alone as they think.

Above everything else, and possibly the most cliché piece of advice I could give, I would tell younger students to chase after their dreams but to be smart about doing it. I would advise them to seek the advice of people who are older and wiser then themselves. I would encourage teenagers to be wise and realistic but also be dreamers. A surprising amount is possible when you have confidence and the drive to make your dreams reality.