Sunday, February 27, 2005

 

2.27.05

Refuse to express a passion and it dies.

Docking out...
-Ryan : oogitty-boogitty-boo!

Ryan posted this at 11:01 PM.

Saturday, February 19, 2005

 

2.19.05

"She's Always A Woman" by Billy Joel.

I always feel guilty.

She put it all in perspective.

And then she shattered it all with a just a few simple sentences.

Only they could make you feel empty

I'm a good _____.

On the application, I put "nothing".

She'd make a good politician.

Docking out...
-Ryan : all his life

Ryan posted this at 1:07 PM.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

 

2.14.05

If only I had stayed awake.

Count on me to be the only one in the world to do that.

I honestly don't know why and I will always question it.

Docking out...
-Ryan : .0000001

Ryan posted this at 5:08 AM.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

 

2.09.05

I think like a freakin' economist.

As long as you learned something, I'm good.

Give credit where credit is due.

Otherwise, take what you will.

Just don't run yourself over in the process.

You can only throw the ball at the wall so many times before it ricochets back into your face, rather than your hands.

Careful now.

Careful.

Docking out...
-Ryan : the usual

Ryan posted this at 5:48 PM.

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

 

2.08.05

I don't do so well with commands.

You have to ask yourself...

Why do you let it effect you in that way?

Addiction, over-attachment.

I've never really known the extreme extent of it before.

People need to lounge out.

You used to wonder why you weren't scoring many points in the social realm?

Modesty and grace go a far way.

Do it for yourself.

=-=-=

College. This very thing has continually been hammered into this generation’s mind since elementary school. Being the youngest of three, I followed two older brothers who entered college, the products of a father and a mother who stressed the benefits and importance of an education. Family nights consisted of going over which colleges we were interested in, with an in-depth analysis and maybe a guest speaker or two. Growing up, I followed the path of a little college bound erudite- participating in GATE programs, taking honors courses. It was all I knew.

The advent of middle school coincided with the introduction of GEAR UP, a program that “guided” my class, preparing them for college. It wasn’t so much as guiding as an excuse to get out of class, get free pizza or constant nagging, but it was a good reminder. Consequently, this did nothing but reemphasize the importance of graduating and getting into a good college. I prided myself on every A I had gotten on tests and on report cards. I was happy, a top mind at my school, but something was missing.

Nowadays, college admissions are becoming more and more competitive. A 4.0 and a SAT score of 1200 aren’t what it used to be. Kids avidly follow the guidelines set forth by UC’s and privates, going beyond what is “recommended”. They take honors courses and AP classes by the dozen- but not because they enjoy the challenge or are genuinely interested in the subject at hand. Oh no- they take these classes because they feel that having these weighted classes will improve their GPAs, the HPs and APs on their transcripts giving them an edge over other applicants. They enroll in workshops that focus on the SATs in hopes that it will boost their scores over the 1500 range.

The majority of my fellow peers live in the exact same way. Most of them have no direction, no idea at all of what they want to do in the future. All they know is that they want to get into college- and not just any colleges, they’re aiming for “top tier” schools. Nothing wrong with that at all, except that they focus on these schools only for the prestige, not for what they offer. They’re only interested because all their lives, it seemed like the only thing to do, get into a respected college and get a good job.

Now, education is an important thing and I, by all means, support it. However, somewhere in the last decade, I think it’s worth, merit and meaning has become somewhat misconstrued. I was among the victims, but I’ve seen the light.

Freshman year of high school, it hit me with the force of a nuclear bomb. It wasn’t that I lacked motivation and enthusiasm- I had those. It was that these two things were driven by others- family, friends, teachers. I was doing a great injustice to my mind. I was doing nothing for myself, for my own pleasure. I decided to pursue education for the knowledge itself. I no longer played it safe by sticking the rules of high school education. Taking risks, my creativity flowed in art and writing, in labs and thinking.

It was a sudden surge of insight. A revelation. The floodgates had opened. The fat lady had sung. My mentality changed forever.

Too many students are constricted to a single path, clouded by burdens of getting into college. I’m tired of hearing parochial students in my classes complain that they don’t get it- mostly because they’re not sure how this particular method will ensure an A. I’m tired because if they just took the time to think about it, they’d see how it works. I’m annoyed by students who complain about kids having better GPAs than them because they take a majority of easier classes. I’m especially irritated by students who grovel for A’s and complain about the amount of work given in an honors or AP class- it’s their fault for taking the course.

College admissions are overrated. Kids crack under the pressure- it’s a win all or lose all situation for them and I hated seeing the disappointment in friend’s eyes when they didn’t get accepted to places like Stanford, Berkeley or Chapman- schools that interested them not for what they offered, but for their reputations.

It saddens me that my generation is a superficial product of others’ expectations. It hardly seems like anyone is doing anything for themselves. There’s more to life than getting the perfect job, with perfect pay and the perfect living- more things like individual happiness and personal achievement.

=-=-=

Docking out...
-Ryan : just beat it

Ryan posted this at 9:45 PM.

Monday, February 07, 2005

 

2.07.05

Holy dayum.

Cocky aren't we?

That's no bueno.

Docking out...
-Ryan : would rather not

Ryan posted this at 5:13 PM.