Stepping Stones to Success My

Stepping Stones to Success

My senior year in high school was consumed with thoughts of what college I could get into given my SAT scores, abilities and grades. With great optimism, I applied to some of the best-known and most highly respected colleges and universities. These universities had programs that were perfectly aligned with my interests, my passions, who I wanted to be after going through a four-year degree program. Each day I waited for the mail to come, checked e-mail religiously hoping for one of those top universities would send me a letter of admittance. Anticipation however turned to disappointment, and finally, the realization that I may not get admitted to one of my dream schools. Honestly, deep down inside, I felt like a failure for not getting into one of these top colleges or universities. Yet as I would see, failure has a way of stripping away everything in your life that is extraneous, only leaving what matters most (thesis).

Weeks tuned to months and still no letters of acceptance came in. Nothing. I was becoming more and more concerned. By this time, my friends, many of which were on the Dean's List in high school were announcing they had been accepted to Duke University, Boston College, University of Chicago, one to Stanford University which had the entire community talking. My friends seemed to move from one success to another and not stop between, there were no "layovers" to use a travel term, in their progression from being exceptional in high school to getting into a top-ranked college of their choice. No, these people flew non-stop from making the Deans' List right into the college they wanted. It was both intimidating and inspiring at the same time. As the second month arrived with acceptance letter from any of the top colleges or universities I applied it, I decided it was time to take a different approach.

I started out stripping away any activity on my applications that did not show my core strengths. Anything that did not stick out and make me unique, I deleted. In fact, I started to consider how unique my background was. I played up my strengths yet stripped away anything that did not make me astoundingly, interestingly different. I never lied or said anything beyond the truth; I just strove to stick out as unique and worth getting to know. In my life I started getting rid of any activity, any time that did not compliment my background and strengths. I focused very hard on being unique and excellent at what I was doing. In short, anything that did not contribute to that goal was stripped away.

With that new mindset, I filled out applications for more colleges and universities. Anything that did not make me stand out was gone. It was as if I was marketing myself and who I was to these colleges and universities. After stripping way so many clubs, so many activities that in retrospect had little to do with my core strengths and skills, I wondered if it would make a difference.