Let's go back to the past for an instant. . .

Not to keep making plugs for my writing. . .


'Average' grads, you too can be successful

Clare Kelly




You are a brainless pinhead if you aren't accepted to Harvard.

I'm completely kidding. But when our society subtly articulates this, they are most certainly not kidding.

The social norms in this contemporary age implicitly tell us, in the outrageously competitive and cutthroat environment we call high school, that if you are not a prodigious student with a GPA through the roof and possess the brilliance of Toni Morrison, then you are indeed a fool.

Never fear because you need not write your future off as grim and catastrophic if you are not some kind of a mastermind.

You are merely average. Yes, average, a word that has perpetually been written off as taboo. A word that always comes with negative connotations for no apparent reason. Let's face it, in this combative society, if we are not superior to all others, if we don't make all others aware of our excellence, then we are deemed second-rate. Being average is something so stigmatized that we as a society cannot even bring ourselves to acknowledge it.

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High school is a bloodthirsty environment with scads of gritty students scurrying about with keen and glistening eyes in order to keep tabs on every single other stellar student they cross paths with. Naturally, this is in an attempt to compare and contrast others' GPAs, rank and test scores with their own.

But what about the average people? Why are your typical students so frowned upon today? Are regular folks doomed to failure simply because they can't rattle off anatomical terms as effortlessly as a ravenous child can gobble up a slice of pie?

Certainly not. It is difficult to believe that average folks will be subjected to a dismal life floundering about in a dark sea of despair ruled solely by straight A students.

In spite of the fact that getting a "B" is the equivalent of a felony or even a sin in some rigid students' eyes, alas, believe it or not, it's not a crime to not have a 4.5 GPA. Not being phenomenally brilliant does not automatically make you an unwise imbecile, despite our overly competitive culture discreetly telling us otherwise. Average folks who have a work ethic and are ambitious without being needlessly vicious can, will and do succeed when they cross that threshold into the real world.

High school is not what the real world is going to be like once we pay our dues and plunge into that ominous void. It is a menagerie, achingly contrived, illogical, contemptuous; the absurdities of where we are now are endless. High school students live in a bubble of sorts with an entirely impractical perspective on the world. They are trapped in a coop, thrashing about amid the encircling gossip, sneering judgment, arbitrary rules and petulance that is just not comparable to the real, working world.

Aside from the bedlam of high school, countless teachers are not very subtle about the fact that they would much prefer to deal with and confer with those students who are destined for the Ivy Leagues as opposed to the befuddled yet ardent souls who have a tendency to stare off bleakly into space every now and then.

Moreover, these teachers have the appalling tendency to blame these students for their difficulties and cast them off as a burden, a nuisance, rather than lending them a hand in order to alleviate their pain.

Talk about a searing jab to your already rickety self-esteem.

In short, you don't have to be the next Nobel Prize laureate to succeed in life. As you gape in trepidation and awe at glossycollege brochures and elatedly wonder what lies behind those Ivy colored walls, contemplate something for a moment. Sure that all looks fantastic on paper, but that doesn't mean you won't end up in your parents' basement due to your earned degree counting for absolutely nothing as you lethargically gawk at Married ...With Children reruns and disregard the classified section of the newspaper as it is gradually submerged in the dust bunnies in the nooks and crannies behind the couch. And in your post-college years, you may or may not be notoriously known as the girl or guy who hints in every other sentence that you are a Yale alum.

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You will not be bowed down to because of this; you will be the punchline of people's jokes.

A certain letter grade or an ACT score does not mean you possess the people skills or other vital skills to function, let alone flourish, in a working environment someday.

And think again before you send that whopping check for $60,000 to a school just because the dorms are simply dazzling. And please remember: Our lives are not ending because high school is drawing to a close - our lives are merely beginning because high school is wrapping up.

Do not be discouraged by the elitist, sniping environment that fuels the competitive atmosphere. What it boils down to is that prestige does not add up to much. I assure you that you do not need to feel compelled to slit your wrists merely because you are not attending Princeton.

Never fear: You will find success where you are going if you are motivated. Remember: It doesn't matter where you go; it's what you do when you get there.