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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

"Berkeley" by Gaby G


This past summer I went to UC Berkeley for a summer medical program. The program took a look into all of the industries stemming from the medical field. I was excited to live in the dorms at Berkeley, shop in all of the little vintage stores, meet new people, and explore the different fields in medicine and health care. When I checked in and said good-bye to my family, I went up to my dorm and met my roommates I would be living with for the next two weeks.
                  We introduced ourselves and the two girls I was rooming with were extremely nice, one from Seattle, Washington and the other lived across the bay in San Francisco. As we all unpacked, the first thing I did was play my music from my laptop as I unloaded my clothes, all of my cliché girly DVD’s along with lining up all of my shoes, and taking out my gossip and beauty magazines I needed to catch up on. My roommates on the other hand, unpacked their SAT and ACT study guides and multiple books on neurology and biochemistry. As soon as I saw that, I took a moment to mentally prepare myself for all of the conversations these two girls were going to have while I would stand there like an idiot having no idea what was going on. As I began to meet more people, all they seemed to talk about was school and the honors classes they took, the Ivy League universities they were applying to, and their extremely high GPA’s. I had a 4.3 and still felt like I was on a lower level intellectually compared to everyone I was meeting. I tried to bring up another topic and somehow the conversation would go back to school.
Throughout the entire two weeks, the students that attended the program were uptight and in need of proving that they were superior to everyone else. There were people from all over the U.S. as well as students from Canada, South Africa, Spain, and Hong Kong. Everyone had something to prove meanwhile I just wanted to learn what I could, meet people, and have fun. Everyone seemed to brag about every aspect of themselves, annoying would be putting it mildly. These students came from extremely wealthy families, most receiving their education in private schools and taking so many extra classes on the side that there was no way a social life was humanly possible. Outsider would put it mildly the way I felt, but I was lucky enough to meet a few people who were not consumed by the thought of their future and participated in the program for fun, not something to add to their college applications. Most of the people participating in the program wanted to be surgeons, while my big dreams are working in a research lab for a cosmetic company or becoming a dermatologist, when people herd that, they eyed me as if my goals were not good enough. During the entire trip as I met new people, they all seemed to want to out shine each other. From every dissection to every suture, to every reaction we made in a lab I could pinpoint the people that lived for perfection, making sure to impress the surgeons and professors we were preforming in front of and never making a mistake.
During the entire trip I questioned the very word of perfection and the costs that came with it. I was talking with my roommate about how she managed to take so many AP classes and extra classes at university campuses on top of it. She said she only does it because she fears for her future. She fears that she will never get into an exceptional university or find a job after college that could produce a substantial income. The thought of her future was her very nightmare and how unstable the real world truly is, terrified her. She was by far the most intelligent person I have met and her fear frightened me. If someone so intelligent beyond her age was worried where her life would be in ten years, I should be terrified.
The reality is, is that the world grows more and more competitive each day and outstanding students have to rise even higher to compete with everyone else who is rising as well. The pressure we have as students to get into a four year university and jump into a paying job after is stressful to say the least. It got me wondering about how many students in the program had that same fear, and the only way to fight it was to perfect themselves, no matter the cost, in the hope of a solid future. If we as students only lived in the present, took the classes we wanted and not the ones that looked good on college applications, acted in the now, treasuring every moment and not fearing the next, where would we be?

19 comments:

  1. More advanced in like every aspect.
    I feel blessed that it is not as competitive here at Etiwanda that we are can take course we actually want to take and not feel the huge pressure from peers thanks to your story. You bring up a very strong point about what we think of the future and how most people think that college is key and not realizing that they have to go to the right door to use that key.Hope you get into your dream school and show that passion about a subject and not kissing up to colleges is what will get people better futures.

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  2. Gaby you have no idea how much I relate to your piece. The standards and expectations thrown at high school students about college are extraordinarily ridiculous. We're still just kids! What are they thinking? Hey yeah, let's just throw a bunch of kids who barely have any experience with the real world into a highly competitive, extremely costly situation, where every decision made can make a substantial impact onto our futures. And, let's just throw them into a mountain of debt while were at it, since they have to pay for education anyways, and of course when they're starting their new lives and trying to make it on their own after the whole deal that's JUST what they'll need. Great writing, very passionate and understanding, this is a huge subject that doesn't get talked about enough, and your writing makes it very clear and shows how important this issue is.

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  3. Gab-Gab, I LOVE this personal narrative!!! Whenever I stop and think about how much emphasis we all place on schoolwork and academic success, I am sickened. From freshman year until now, all we ever hear is "take AP classes, excel, succeed." But like you said, I think we fail to question why we feel compelled to follow this advice. Honestly, I think it all boils down to money. We take the hardest courses we can, so that we can earn the highest grade-point average, so that we can get into the most prestigious colleges, so that we can pursue the most high-paying jobs. Ultimately though, there is so much more to life than money. It scares me to think about how many of us are swept into believing the lie that wealth equals stability which equals happiness. Thank you for reminding us all that this assumption simply isn't true.

    -Christina Tapia

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  4. Gaby this is perfect. I think we all try our best to enjoy life but we get crushed by loads of work and worry. I have experienced the same thing where I visited colleges and I would try to strike up some fun conversation and have a couple laughs and all I get in response are questions about my GPA and clubs and things like that. It is sad that people get so consumed with things like that because the truth is that each of us will only be a kid for a short while longer.

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  5. Gaby, this piece was very honest, and I could definitely relate! I went to something very similar at Pepperdine for a leadership conference, and everyone else there was like you described; rich, a tad stuck up, and incredibly, incredibly smart AND talented in various things. I'm glad that here, we're not as crazy as kids are at other schools, and hopefully, our more laid-back ethic of "living in the present" will eventually help us later on in life!

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  6. This really hits us all pretty hard considering we are all in the same boat. There is so much fear for the future and trying to make ourselves be perfect so that we can go to that perfect college, get the perfect job, and live a perfect life, but I agree with you in that we should live right now. Just have fun while it still lasts. The end of the school year is coming pretty fast and then that's it, so we should enjoy these last few months that we still have. Great job Gaby!

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  7. I find it quite upsetting how education is no longer about learning what you like and gaining wisdom. Gone are the days of Aristotle. It's now a competition, where we all have to beat everyone else in all aspects of school. I'm quite afraid of what I'll find once I leave Etiwanda and the debts that I'll most likely experience. That's why this piece really touched me personally, because it voices my fears. However, I admire how you handled your situation. I'm sure you'll succeed in achieving your dreams.

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  8. I get the same feeling as well... I agree with you in how students now are studying hard for their "future", but not for what they like. The "future" is too far away to estimate what would happen, so why are they still trying so hard? I know of people who took hard AP classes, joined a bunch of clubs, but have no clue what to major in once in college. I believe that sometimes, it's good for people to take a step back from all work, and see if all this is really necessary for them. This is an interesting discovery from your trip!

    -Hsing Chang

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  9. Wow, what an eye-opening personal reflection. You started off with such a positive expectation of your upcoming experience, making us predict that you'll talk about what a positive, life-changing experience your trip was. However, you did the opposite, which made it even more interesting. You did, indeed have a life-changing experience in a sense, but the type you experienced was definitely not something some of us were expecting to read about. It's such a shame that modern society is changing many students to act exactly the way you described them; it makes us wonder why they do the things they do, if they're going to end up having to be lifeless robots on the way. But hearing about you experiencing about such wonderful opportunities at Berkeley whilst enjoying your life is what was the most inspiring out of all in this piece. You have a very bright future ahead of you, and I hope this experience was just an obstacle you successfully overcame to achieve your dream goals. You go, Gaby!!! (:

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  10. I think this really reflects on how students have to manage their time as they get older. College is a whole another world where you sometimes don't get to have the social life because you have to make the grades and I really like how your piece reflected that.

    -Erin Napoleon

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  11. You know, it's funny. I am not a very competitive person at all, yet the more I think about it the more I realize I have been competing with someone my entire life. .I think, in reality, we all strive to our own ideas of perfection without even realizing it. Education literally has become a competition; instead of it being about knowledge, getting a college education has become a fight to be the best so that we can, in the future make the best money, have the best life. I think this reflection was well-written and thought provoking. Fantastic job.

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  12. I greatly enjoyed how relatable your story was. Almost every smart teenager that I know, constantly keep talking about school and academics. I've personally visited UC Berkley and your description of your experience and what you learned from it brought to mind, my own memories. Great Job. You connected well with the audience and used diction and syntax creatively.

    -Marcopolo Anzora

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  13. I greatly enjoyed your piece, it was very relatable. I completely understand what you meant about the competitive aspect of AP student and I was instantly connected with what you were trying to say. Great Job.

    - Marcopolo Anzora

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  14. It's funny how you say that these uptight students' biggest fears are for their future, but my biggest fear is becoming these uptight students. All those times that you could have spent with family instead of cocooning in your room...or all those friends and lives you could have impacted if you just stepped off your pedestal and treated them like equals... I mean how much money could really compensate for lost memories, missed opportunities, and an overall passive lifestyle? How many wannabe doctors actually care about their patients more than their paycheck?

    ...anyways, sorry I went a little off the tangent but this post was just SO RELEVANT and made me wanna rant! I'm glad you shared this story with us, it really puts things in perspective especially at a time when we are all choosing majors and career paths. GOOD JOB GABY:)
    -Sherry Li
    Period 5

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  15. It's funny how you say that these uptight students' biggest fears are for their future, but my biggest fear is becoming these uptight students. All those times that you could have spent with family instead of cocooning in your room...or all those friends and lives you could have impacted if you just stepped off your pedestal and treated them like equals... I mean how much money could really compensate for lost memories, missed opportunities, and an overall passive lifestyle? How many wannabe doctors actually care about their patients more than their paycheck?

    ...anyways, sorry I went a little off the tangent but this post was just SO RELEVANT and made me wanna rant! I'm glad you shared this story with us, it really puts things in perspective especially at a time when we are all choosing majors and career paths. GOOD JOB GABY:)
    -Sherry Li
    Period 5

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  16. Well to start off, congrats Gaby on being able to go to something like that, I mean a summer medical program and at Berkeley no less, wow! I enjoyed this because of all of the truth it holds, everyone seems to be competing for the same spot at the same universities. Everyone wants to be successful, and we're all afraid of failing or being unable to attain it. I really relate to the room mate you spoke to about why she was taking so many AP classes and doing so much extra. I really liked the ending, and it's fun to think about what i'd be doing if I hadn't chosen to worry about college so much.

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  17. Gaby! Thanks for sharing such a beautiful story! It's so crazy because I honestly could relate to this piece so much. I loved how you talked about comparing yourself to other individuals and not feeling like you were as good as them. Your use of the anecdote really brought the story to life and made me feel what you were going through. Your last paragraph in the end had a great message! Great piece! I hope both of us get into UC Berkeley and accomplish our goals! (even though they might be different from others, that's what makes us unique!)

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  18. Your piece is so easily relatable to all, especially those in this class. From the start we are told to be the best of the best and try to be on top. Yet, they never tell us how hard it will be or if putting in all this work will result in what we truly want from life. Your writing allowed me to realize that there are people out there who are smarter, stronger, and more willing, but it also allowed me to realize that the work I have put in will only produce the happiness I wish to find. You did an amazing job!! Oh and p.s. I am soooo jealous that you got to spend the summer at Berkley, it sounded like an amazing learning experience all around.

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  19. I know exactly how it feels to be around people much more prepared for life than you. I went to the same conference at Berkeley ( Except for engineering) so ive been around these people as well, felt a lot like what you describe it as. Good work
    -Arturo Ayala

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