How Algebra Changed My Life

Words: 748
Pages: 3

Something I’ve struggled with for the past several months is the realization that I am not the person I thought I would be by the time I graduated. I don’t have a 4.5 GPA; I’m not even graduating with honors. I didn’t receive countless scholarships. I was never the star of the school musical. I wasn’t anybody’s high school sweetheart; I don’t have a mountain of friends who completely and totally adore me and I don’t captivate every room I walk into. I am not going to some glamourous private college in New York or California or Europe and I am not blonde, which for some reason is how I always pictured myself graduating when I was a freshman. I have not gotten to the point in my life where I succeed at almost everything …show more content…
I don’t measure my worth by how many likes my photos can get, or how many people know my name, or how many scholarship offers I can get, or how many friends I have. There are times when I get caught up on how things could have been for me if I’d operated a little differently. If I’d pushed myself a little more I could have gotten a better Algebra grade. If I’d focused a little more I could have gotten a better role in the play. If I’d worked a little harder I could have been a better editor. It might be true, but I no longer have any control over the past and there’s no way of knowing how it will affect the future. I guess most important lesson I’ve learned as I’ve dealt with this feeling of what-if is just to let myself be. I shouldn’t have to distort who I am to meet people’s expectations, even my own. This isn’t to say that I shouldn’t push myself for improvement, but I also shouldn’t constrain myself to be something I’m not. Change is good. Change is natural. Life changes, and it forces us to change with it. How we adjust to it is up to us. We can become bitter and grieve over what could have been. But we can also choose to keep going, knowing that every step forward is a step towards growth, even if it isn’t in the direction we might have