Youthful Words of Wisdom by Maria

Youthful Words of Wisdom by Maria - April 2016 Scholarship Essay

“If you are what you should be, you will set the world aflame.” This popular quote from St. Catherine of Siena explains well how students should go about surviving high school. There are many seniors that will give advice to underclassmen explaining how procrastination will lead to ruin, completing homework assignments re-gifts itself as passing grades, and studying prior to the night before a test manifests as less anxiety and better success on the test. While all of these nuggets of guidance are accurate, helpful, and useful, they are also the most cliché information that freshmen hear on the weekly basis. St. Catherine states perfectly all that underclassmen need to hear in order to succeed. The only advice that I would pass down to younger students is to be who you should be.
People are told to be themselves, be an individual, don’t go with the flow, and fly against the wind. However, in order to do that, you have to compare yourself to the people around you, and therefore, do exactly the opposite of what those inspirational quotes are trying to get at. While you are not behaving in the same way others are for the sake of fitting in, people base their actions on the opposite of what others are doing. Students are still comparing themselves to others. Students who try to ‘be themselves’ struggle because they do not yet know who they are. They are left feeling stranded and alone because they have yet to find themselves. I suggest to students to be who they should be and they will find who they are. Find a respectable role model that has the characteristics you would like to exhibit someday, and follow them. Don’t try to be them, because that is counterproductive, but it is beneficial to have a prototype to measure up to. This has helped me, personally grow as an individual and become who I was meant to be.
High school can be challenging in many ways, one of those ways being the struggle you face finding out what you want to do with the rest of your life. I faced that same struggle. I took many career surveys, personality tests, and my fair share of career focused electives. It wasn’t until I found out who I was meant to be, that finding a career made any sense and acquired meaning. There were many role models in my life that I began to look up to in order to help shape myself into the individual I desired to be. I could not be who I was meant to be on my own. Humans are social individuals and should look to others for even the most basic answers, such as who you are and who you should aim to be. With this advice, if younger students are what they should be, they will not procrastinate, will complete their homework, and will study in advanced, and will in turn, set the world aflame.