Exactly Who You Want to Be by Maciah

Exactly Who You Want to Be by Maciah - October 2018 Scholarship Essay

Growing up in elementary school, I frequently heard that in order to succeed, one must “think outside the box.” Though we were habitually told to think differently, it was never explained to us what that really meant. We were left to ourselves to discover what thinking outside the box meant, and I found that it means something really quite extraordinary.
“Think outside the box.” What this means is to be yourself. To not conform to what society wants you to think, but to believe what you believe. This is a very important thing to learn and understand, and it is so essential that we teach this to kids at a very young age.
When children learn young, they understand that it is okay to be different and that it is okay to think differently than others. Consequently, that teaches children a much needed culture of acceptance for varying opinions and beliefs which is a fundamental lesson that must be taught and understood in order to succeed in this life.
When I was in sixth grade, my family hosted a foreign exchange student from Malaysia. This was one of the coolest experiences of my life for many reasons, one of those being the fact that my new sister saw things so much differently that I did, and that challenged me to look at certain things in a new light. Thinking outside the box also means to look at things from a perspective that most people would not see the situation from. This is crucial to practice, as it teaches you the character trait that is all too lacking in our world today: empathy.
Although I didn’t enjoy hearing the phrase so often in elementary school, I now have a newfound appreciation for the effort that teachers and mentors in my life made to encourage me to think outside the box. Because of the effort they gave to support me in becoming whoever I believed I could be, I am now encountering situations that I would never have even dreamed of having the privilege of being in.