Words to Build a Future by Genesis
Genesisof West Jordan's entry into Varsity Tutor's March 2019 scholarship contest
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Words to Build a Future by Genesis - March 2019 Scholarship Essay
Know that you are more than enough.
My friend used to tell me this on late nights when I would find myself crying away the pain of many years of constant feelings of inferiority and struggling with upholding the expectations of parents and those around me. It was a weight that broke my back and left me a shell of a person by the time I reached high school.
The issue with high school is that many students feel as if the world has ended there because suddenly things matter. Grades are serious, college is a blink away, and parents are increasing pressure to meet some unattainable standards. The expectations become a battle and not meeting them is the equivalent of facing your parents to say you give up on life. Especially in the case of lower income families like mine where the only job options were to become a doctor, a vet, a lawyer, or a CEO. The issue with this is that it creates the idea that the things that are done are not enough.
There are many things that your parents and peers will tell you. Careers and passions will be pushed away in favor of ones that seem more financially enlightened. However, pushing such ideas only seems to damage the moral and minds of youth and instill in them that if they are not at a certain standard then they are not trying hard enough.
Yet, this mentality is flawed for who is anyone but the child to say whether or not they are trying? Often times, a parent is a child’s first bully. They will tell that beautiful daughter who deserves the world that she is too skinny, too fat, too dumb, too social, too selfish, too isolated, too artsy, too logical, too much of something. As children who have known nobody else to know us the way that our parents do, of course things like this will sink into our heads and we will begin to believe it as well. Maybe we do eat too much or too little. Maybe our hair is too nappy or flat. Maybe our grades are too low or we spend too much time drawing in our rooms. Maybe we don’t make friends easily and like subjects that others don’t. Perhaps even our GPA isn’t the most enticing of GPAs.
It would be wonderful if this were not the case and if instead, parents stopped neglecting their child’s needs and abilities that differ from others and tell their sons and daughters exactly what they need to hear: you are enough.
What you are doing is enough. As long as you are truly trying with every fiber in your being to be who you desire to be and who you find best to be, then you are enough. Grades, interest, looks, and other things that are temporary are not who you are. Do not allow anyone but yourself determine who you are meant to be. Nobody can take away what makes you the person you are.
This does not mean abandon morals, commit crime, lower your grades purposely, nor anything of the sort. What this means is that you are a wonderful person who is not made to be anyone’s image of perfection. You are not to be held by the standards of your parents that only wear you down until you no longer care what happens in your future. You are not an idiot for not taking the most challenging courses or not being able to always get the As. It means that your efforts in growing and the things that build up the complex person that you are make you enough.
You are enough. My friend would tell me this up until he died. You are enough. It rings clearly in my head and I pass it on to the youth who have never heard it before because their parents never thought that such a thing would matter. Perhaps they only had one parent or none and such words were but a fantasy that movies told. This is why it is important to hold these words close.
Our parents, uncles, aunts, and teachers may never say it or think it. Even our peers may glance weirdly at the thought of such words. However, if nobody else will say it, then I will. We cannot motivate our youth by demeaning them for their flaws or where they fall short after their deepest efforts. To the children of today who will shape tomorrow, I give you my best friend’s words: you are enough. Never forget it.