Students deserve a childhood

Now, maybe it was unfortunate that I was reading these things so late in my high school career — much too late to be any kind of early. However, I found it gratifying that I didn’t see these blogs three years earlier, because then I may have lost some of the best years of my life to a name brand.

That is really what colleges are, once you get to the top 20: name brands. For the most part, academics are indistinguishable from one another, so the stereotype of the name or prestige of the name is what attracts so many applicants. And, I get it, I also wanted to be a part of the highest ranking brands.

The issue with proclaiming “start early!” is that students will start; they’ll search for internships, build the foundation of a nonprofit, rack up volunteer hours, do whatever they think it’ll take to get into their dream college … at the expense of experiencing anything other than that.

Throughout high school — but especially in my junior and senior year — I’ve watched friends do next to nothing other than the stuff they started as freshman and lamented over how weak I looked next to their impressive resumes. It’s not like I had nothing either.

However, I realized all the leadership positions and extracurriculars my friends had were the result of a devil on their shoulder telling them “start early!” And I claim it is a devil because truly, while they seem happy with their lives, I see nothing but the box they shoved themselves into before high school to get into Stanford, Yale, etc. 

Being so hyper-focused on getting into an elite school cost them their childhoods. They perfect their “box” and stay so centered on that box they never deviate from it, resulting in a very polished applicant, however, also a person without true knowledge of who they are and what they like.

The reality of trying to be perfect is that my friends' very mindset around high school prevents them from simply trying different things out to see if they like them. They may never outright say it, but the excuse of “I can’t waste my time on [insert activity]” isn’t uncommon.

I guarantee the type of person who wants to go to an elite university to that extent is too dependent on external recognition for their self worth and it will catch up to them later in life. The kind of person who doesn’t focus on the name and rather what they can make of their opportunities is much more likely to find happiness.

A part of being young and in high school is the flexibility to make stupid mistakes and try new things; when you remove that integral part of development, you’re left with someone who sounds great on paper but has less life than someone not as polished. 

Natural progression through high school — discovering new interests and dedicating some of your time to them — trumps artificial progression when students become functioning members of society. Most of us will be trapped in the nine-to-five grind regardless of how we performed in high school, what differentiates people from each other is personality and ethics.

I did not start high school with college in mind, and I’ve spent my time here well. I have accomplished numerous things in different fields and maintained a social life in which I’ve been able to make stupid mistakes. I wouldn’t trade the past four years to go to Harvard, because I have truly lived, and lived well.

Jackson Sneeringer is a senior at Carlmont High School in Belmont. Student News appears in the weekend edition. You can email Student News at news@smdailyjournal.com.