Sunday, October 16, 2011
Congrats, You Don't Have a Life
In middle school I was really smart. I didn't have to try that hard and I knew I would still get an A. I watched as my friends struggled with school and I didn't get it, it was just so easy to me. Then came high school. Suddenly classes weren't so easy. I actually had to study for my tests and my homework took a lot longer than 20 minutes. Everyday I felt like I wasn't good enough, like I wasn't smart enough. Because school was harder, so was planning my social life and playing sports. There wasn't time to hang with friends after school and on top of a long school day I had basketball for two hours afterwords. I saw Two Million Minutes for the first time last year in Honors Communication. Watching it for a second time made just as mad as I was the first time I watched it. Here I am, working my butt off, and Robert Compton has to come along and throw it all down the shitter. I'm happy as I am, and I don't want to be like any of those Chinese and Indian kids. My life is about so much more than school. There is plenty of ways I can be successful without secluding myself to my household trying to become some kind of genius. I mean, what kind of life is that? The beauty of America is that we have the freedom to do what we want. So our kids aren't as 'smart' as the kids in India and China. Not everyone can be. In those countries, if you aren't smart enough to get a good job your life is pretty much down the drains. Sports are a huge part of most Americans lives and this is portrayed as a bad thing. I don't see how sports can be so bad when they give kids opportunities they can't get with school. Sports keep kids out of drugs. They get people to work together. There are kids who aren't smart enough to succeed in life but they are athletic enough to make it to the pro level. No one's life should be defined by their intelligence level and how hard they study. Life is about things you don't learn in school. Are you going to look back on your life and think "Wow I really liked that girl because she was so smart," or are you more likely to look back and think "Wow I really liked her because she was so nice?" I'm proud of the people in my country. So we are different than India and China. Big deal. I'm not giving up my life and who I am as a person for a couple extra hours of studying. No thank you. We all have the freedom to work as hard as we want. People will be who they want to be, if that's a Yale graduate, great, if it's singer, that's great, too.
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After reading this, I realized that the Chinese and Indian kids put pressure on academics because that is the best way to achieve success in those countries. In America, because sports ares so big, it makes sense to pursue them because there is an audience for it. In countries such as India and China, I don't really know, but I would think that there are so many people and less of an emphasis or sports, that a student who pursues a sport is less likely to make it big than in america. It is safer just to go to school and get a job.
ReplyDeletethis is so true... us americans work hard! so what if we don't do homework from when we come home to the time we go to bed? i can bet you when placed in a room and told to make a business deal, the americans will get it done because they know how to interact with other people. i also felt mad during the movie because we do work our butts off. we might be working our butts of in sports or our debate team, but we are working hard.
ReplyDeleteEmily.... That is the point I'm trying to make. This video tries to make Americans feel bad about the way they are choosing to live their lives. We just have other ways of being successful and I think that should be recognized.
ReplyDeleteCaroline, I agree with you on that we have more opportunities than India or China does, but don't you think that Wayzata puts a little *too* much emphasis on sports? We praise sports more than we do academics. Sports are a crucial part of our lives. There's nothing wrong about that. But it is a problem when someone throws education away in order to pursue a sport (or any, really) profession. Isn't it a tad sad that a football player gets payed maybe 10x the salary that a doctor makes?
ReplyDeleteI agree that football players probably shouldn't be getting paid the same as doctors and that people shouldn't throw away their educations for sports. That is why athletes have to maintain certain grades to remain on the team. I just want to acknowledge the fact that sports offer other opportunities for those who are not as blessed intelligence-wise. I can see how you feel Wayzata puts too much emphasis on sports but personally I don't think its a problem. I think we are lucky to go to a school where our student body is so good about coming out to support our teams and the work ethic that sports at our school encourages.
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