What is the one trait that you believe to be the most crucial to your success? How has failure been part of your learning?
Before the beginning of my junior year, I never felt like I had significant success, be it socially, academically, or other areas. But right now I feel like I have become more aligned with my path to success, primarily because of 'Push', Richard St. Johnson's way of saying motivation. Life was very much similar to a carefree balloon, floating and wandering without direction until one day the helium no longer sustains its linkage downwards. That was me for a long time, but this year with the influences of my friends, teachers, and renewed self-confidence, it became clear to me that if I wanted to achieve success, it was time to start pushing.
The capstone project is largely uncharted territory for me as well as many students. It may be the first time that we get to utilize the skill-sets we've acquired during class in creating something of our own, and that is why it is ever so pertinent to push, work, and persist.
When it comes to failures, it actually may be possible that someone has reached high school without any significant failures. Getting a slightly lower test grade or failing to ask out a boy/girl during 6th grade are things that don't do the word 'failure' justice. During my 8th grade year, I applied to three high schools in total; Hotchkiss, Kent, and Marvelwood. Hotchkiss was a large stretch, but Kent I genuinely thought was possible, which it was. Many of my friends were faculty children there, and that made me even more desperate to get in, and I didn't. I was quite depressed for some time after that failure, and through one failure I failed to see what Marvelwood could bring me. In retrospect, there were many mistakes to my application that I failed to see due to hubris. I was certain with grades like mine I could get in, and that elevated the collateral of the fall even more. Marvelwood has been great to me yet the lingering regret still hangs.
This event shaped me in more ways than I can describe with language. When approaching large-scale affairs such as the SATs, AP tests, this project, Concerts/Recitals, and applying for colleges, I now always maintain a steady mindset, so that the result comes out reliably and with as satisfactory as achievable outcomes. Regret from failures stabilize one's hand so that the probability and degree of failure in the future is less, and I follow this philosophy to the utmost extent. When people talk about "doing your best", it's not for the splendor of success but rather for the fear of defeat.
The capstone project is largely uncharted territory for me as well as many students. It may be the first time that we get to utilize the skill-sets we've acquired during class in creating something of our own, and that is why it is ever so pertinent to push, work, and persist.
When it comes to failures, it actually may be possible that someone has reached high school without any significant failures. Getting a slightly lower test grade or failing to ask out a boy/girl during 6th grade are things that don't do the word 'failure' justice. During my 8th grade year, I applied to three high schools in total; Hotchkiss, Kent, and Marvelwood. Hotchkiss was a large stretch, but Kent I genuinely thought was possible, which it was. Many of my friends were faculty children there, and that made me even more desperate to get in, and I didn't. I was quite depressed for some time after that failure, and through one failure I failed to see what Marvelwood could bring me. In retrospect, there were many mistakes to my application that I failed to see due to hubris. I was certain with grades like mine I could get in, and that elevated the collateral of the fall even more. Marvelwood has been great to me yet the lingering regret still hangs.
This event shaped me in more ways than I can describe with language. When approaching large-scale affairs such as the SATs, AP tests, this project, Concerts/Recitals, and applying for colleges, I now always maintain a steady mindset, so that the result comes out reliably and with as satisfactory as achievable outcomes. Regret from failures stabilize one's hand so that the probability and degree of failure in the future is less, and I follow this philosophy to the utmost extent. When people talk about "doing your best", it's not for the splendor of success but rather for the fear of defeat.
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