Honest Expression

 "Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."  Bruce Lee

This post is a message that will hopefully be a call to arms for some of you. Too many people nowadays are trying to become something for artificial reasons. At the private high school that I attend many students desire to go to a school like Harvard or Princeton. There is absolutely no problem with this, and I think it is great that these students are trying to further their education;however, it's their reasons, rather their lack of reasons, for attending said schools that is particularly troubling. It has become apparent to me that they want to attend these schools because of how the schools are perceived, while others think that an Ivy league school is where they are "supposed to go." Essentially these students are deciding their future not based on what they want, or where they know they would be successful, but on the way that society would view them and the college that they will attend. While some may blame the outside pressures on these students: namely parents and friends, I tend to think that majority of the problem lies within the student. At the end of the day, this is YOUR life and YOU decide what you want to make of it. It would be hypocritical of me to not tell you how I have come to the conclusion on where I want to go, and what I want to study-- so here are some suggestions to find out what you want to do in college and possibly where you want to go.
          How to find the Job and Major:

• Think about what jobs currently interest you and make a list (Navy SEAL,Lawyer, Strength Coach)
• Create a list of your two favorite subjects     (History, English)
• Research potential majors that involve one or both of your favorite subjects(I bought a book on majors)
• Cut that list of majors down to the two or three that interest you the most (Political Science, Philosophy)
• What jobs do your favorite majors prepare you for, ideally this should connect with the 1st bullet
• I plan on going to a 4 year college, then enlisting in the Navy and then attending Law school, but it is your job to find out how much schooling is needed beyond college, or if you even need to go to college for what you actually want to do. Just read an absolute ton of books, and you will find what you want to do.

           How to find the College (Do this after you have done the previous bullet points):

• Create a list of environments that you know you will be able to be successful in ( medium-sized school, near beach that is academically challenging)
• Think about how much money you are willing/able to pay for college (I want to have minimal debt)
• Assuming that you are a bright student looking for a good academic program, (yes I realize the horrors of assuming but let that not deter us) Google the top 25 undergrad programs for the 2 majors that you have created on the previous list. I have shown that here:  http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Top+25+political+science+undergraduate+programs
• Hopefully you have found a list of good programs, now it's your job to match the results of the best programs with the environment that you described in the first bullet of this section. 

Luckily, if you call reading and researching for 1.5 years luck, I found the school and jobs that I want to pursue by following the bullet points, but if you don't I would suggest looking at schools that fit your environment description and visiting them. Many students change majors, but it is a hassle to change schools-- So prioritize the school environment.  At the end of the day, YOU are the one who will have to deal with all-night study sessions, and YOU are the one who will have to fight tooth and nail to achieve the grades and success that you know you are capable of; so make it a little easier and pick an environment that enables you to do all of this, while allowing you personal time to morph into the beautiful butterfly that is clamoring to be let out. Take initiative in your life,  don't ever shortchange yourself and don't settle for anything except greatness, while this whole process takes time--I guarantee you will be better for it. "Look up, get up, and don't ever give up."

Thanks for reading. JG