Always I have been a strong proponent of overachievement. Principal’s honor roll I vehemently held. However, I gradually began to wonder what all my achievements were for, what it all was leading to, what the point of it all was. My attention soon focused on the social aspect of school. I developed habits in my early high school career that were lackluster to say the least. What had always been my favorite subject now contained my lowest grade–science. Luckily, I stumbled upon one young environmental science teacher whom I became very attached to my junior year of high school. During my breaks and lunches we pondered about the world’s conundrums. Sharing me the knowledge of the inefficiency at which humans work, the detrimental effects our actions have on our environment completely changed my way of thinking.
No longer caring about my personal benefit in school but for the repercussions my actions would have on the world, I gained better understanding of what I wanted to attain from education and gradually took more challenging classes. Yet I continually felt the urge that if I truly wanted to change, I would want to experience what I was striving for. Newly inspired, I took advantage of the opportunity to attend a physics course at my local Community College. It was life changing! The teacher unlocked a core part of my brain, helping me understand how seemingly impossible actions can be simplified to basic foundational understandings of nature; no energy is wasted. I then applied this ideology to my history of academics. It was not this class or that project that was not turned that was the bane of my existence. It was laziness and lack of motivation.
I will never forget what the professor said in one session. While describing how amazing it would be to have a recent life changing discovery in science, a student asked what he would give for that discovery. He selflessly responded with saying that he would give up his life if it meant a groundbreaking discovery in science that would change many more and much more important lives than his. Incredibly inspiring, these people confirmed to me that I no longer spent thousands of hours studying simply for my own personal benefit. Rather, the culmination of years and years of study sessions, classes, lost weekends, club meetings, it was all preparing me for the ultimate reward–helping others.
