Prid Pride

“Accept the challenge so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.” Stated by George S. Patton, a senior officer of the United States Army, trying to explain that if you try to achieve difficult goals and complete them, you will feel success and feel good about yourself. You will feel that because you knew that you have put in the work to complete that and you have felt better than you ever felt before. Challenges are always needed because they help you gain confidence, grow, learn, and excel in whatever you are doing. They are needed because when you excel, you want to do more challenging things because you want to feel that success again. This means that when you have tough goals and complete it, you will feel success and grow as an individual and want to challenge yourself even more.

My grades have always been a high priority for me, along with my friends, family, and personal health, all of which are important for my future as a productive citizen. Throughout my schooling I have never felt the animosity towards education which sadly many of my peers hold, in fack I have even come to enjoy the challenges that school can present. I think mainly because much of the skills needed to do well in school came fairly naturally to me. Due to my adeptness in school I have felt that I should help those around me which are struggling in school and since I began helping others in school, I have found that I can explain those subjects which came easily to me in a way that could be easily understood by those I

No, not at all! It empowers me to work twice as diligently as everyone else, I’m motivated by the competition in front of me as hard work will be rewarded with success. Life is set up in order for the successful families to remain prominent while the disadvantaged face tremendous barriers to climb the ladder of success. Facing reality, I’ve constantly pushed myself in high school to even the playing field with my privileged peers. I’ve followed their path by taking the AP classes my school offers, participating in clubs, and spending my free time volunteering. However, as much as I’ve followed them it could not put me ahead of them, for that reason it's essential for me to push myself the farthest than my peers. In doing so, I took up an internship, dedicated an entire summer to a middle school volunteering program, and challenging myself with the most AP/honors classes out of my class. Dedication truly pays off seeing now I will be the valedictorian of my graduating class. Who would’ve guessed, the student, whose parents dropped out of school to work in their family farms, is the utmost excelled in his class. Yet, I’m not stopping my advancement in high school, I will proceed to challenge myself throughout college, knowing that it’s crucial to future

Today, young people live in an environment in which many judge beauty on a superficial level, overspending budget margins for college or the student cannot afford to go to college at that year. Others such as social influences of the classroom, outside of the classroom, parents and teachers can have a profound effect on the college student too. These influences often meet with the students at multiple points in their lives. It depends on the student if they ignore, embrace or follow these influences that comes to pass. Is it expected to do as the others do? The real question is if all of these specific influences and individuals alter our lives for better or worse.

We go to school day after day and see the same things happening. We never have the time to question these things or to even stop and take a second to wonder, is this the right way to handle this or is this what I am supposed to be doing with my life. From the moment we walk through those school doors until we leave at the end of the day there is nothing but competition. There are many different kinds of competition, whether it is in a sport for school or for who has the best academic scores. A second in the day does not go by where there are not two students competing for the winning spot. In Mike Rose, “I Just Wanna Be Average” we are able to see that there is no self-motivation for Rose when he realizes his test scores have been mixed up

Ever since the beginning of my academic career I have put great pride in my grades. I have been able to maintain

When I passed my AP World History test. During my freshman year I was put into an AP class. I didn’t know what AP was, I didn’t know what to expect. I was able to handle my honors classes because it was material back in middle school. However, AP World History was strenuous and took major effort. There were multiple times where I had uncertainty of whether or not I was capable to keep going. I really felt out of place because it was a difficult class with essays, chapters to read and exams every week. Nonetheless, I never gave in, I convinced myself that the reason why my school put in roughly 90 kids, including myself, out of at least 1000, is because they saw potential in us and knew that we would be able to handle the stress of a college

Despite having above-average grades, I lacked any of the pride and confidence other students carried. Despite having a group of trustworthy friends, the feelings of disappointment kept me feeling isolated and miserable. A teenager who deep inside, kept dreaming of myself with great academic potential while failing to prove anything to anyone. As the ten minute mark has passed in the AP testing room, I remember the sensation of deep frustration, a feeling of desperate anger to change something. At that brief moment I felt a successful score on the AP World History test would be my salvation, the ultimate test of resolve. Thus my mind started to naturally channel the frustration into deep concentration: my mind quickly adapted into competitive overdrive. For the first time in my academic experience, I found the will to break the influence of testing

In order to academically succeed in college a student like myself should be able to be self-motivated. Motivation, from my own perspective, is known as a strong and irrespective force that helps me achieve what I want to aspire and overcome every academic obstacle that comes my way. This belief that I go by, is the key to success in my academic journey. I can recall several circumstances in which the possession of motivation was the deciding factor between my success and failure. Taking exams is one of the most prominent feature in which motivation is the key to succeeding. I recently received an "A" on an important exam in my Principle of Business class. The reason I performed well on the exam is because of the motivation I had to learn the new material for the exam. I prepared well for the test;

Looking at how I perform at an academic level, there is no surprise to anyone that I am among the top of my class, with hard work and dedication I have fought my way to the get the spot I currently hold. To get to the spot, many challenges had to be overcome and a lot of effort had to be put in. Along the way, I discovered this helped my development into the type of student I currently am.

Sports and activities is what make school so much more fun. I struggle sometimes on certain subjects, not good at them at all. But I know that if I at least put in hard work to get a average grade then I will be able to keep doing the sports and activities I love. Just when I heard I would now have to average a B to stay in them, I cringed in thought thinking. "How am I possibly going to be able to do this in all of my subjects"! Even the ones who put in a lot of hard work getting honor roll have hard times with some of their

Whether it is in a particular subject or extracurricular, there was a constant comparison and a hunger to beat other. This not only brought large amounts of stress and anxiety but an idea that your self-worth was completely dependent in these areas. I have seen people have constant breakdowns, and feel a surge of accomplishment that never really resulted in happiness. A constant I found through these experiences was that being the best only brought you a temporary high, happiness, and satisfaction. It never brought you true happiness as you were constantly protecting your throne from others who are fighting viciously to get it. You were in constant anxiety and stress, and that brief moment of happiness wasn't worth the whole journey you put yourself through. I have been in the situation where I ask myself, was this even worth it? Was the constant stress worth it? Were the breakdowns worth it? Was the feeling of constant defensiveness worth it? Was feeling that brief moment of satisfaction worth it? No. It wasn't. You might've held onto that crown for a brief moment, but what is that when you could've been so much happier all

I had my transcripts from my other school and I was comparing the classes together. The grade scale was the biggest difference for me. I used to go by a 7 point scale and now it is a 10 point scale. To me, the school looked unimpressive due to the reviews and rating. I thought I was going to some lame school with no academics to challenge my mind. When I actually started to go to school and starting to learn in class, I realized how wrong I was again. These classes piled on work with challenging questions and new ideas about how the subject should be taught. It was really surprising to me of how wrong I was about the school. It made me wonder about the reviews and if it was just based on where the school was and the little funding it had. The opinions about this school had to be based on bad experiences and not actually based on the facts and figures of what happens in the school. My grades were still excellent and my mind got the competition it needed to get me going. The expression “Never judge a book by its cover” rings true to this very sense. Knowing something and learning something can bring on a different perspective. It made me see my life in a different light by using my new found

School is one of the most judgmental and competitive places to be in. “A lot is expected from you after your brother”. This stuck in my head. Even before I go into tests this is all I hear in my head playing on a never-ending loop. I almost felt downgraded

Tough education is beneficial to students because it can force students to actually learn. As a student, I can relate to the frustration that comes from the struggle of trying to grasp one subject only to have a new subject come into play the next day. It’s like trying to climb a mountain bare-handed when it is evident that the only thing at the top is another mountain. For me, it was about halfway through my fourth grade year when I realized this. From kindergarten to third grade I attended a public school and was at the top of my class each year, which I will admit made me lazy and arrogant. It was a very comforting environment where I never felt like I had to do any work, it was as if the school had placed a escalator on the mountain reaching all the way to the top and I was fine using it. Unfortunately for me, my parents noticed that I was not learning at my