I paused for 30 seconds and reflected... Unfortunately the answer was no.
I realized that for the past year my whole life had started spinning around school and it was as if school was my sun to the solar system and I was just orbiting around it.
Instead of spending my final years in high school creating lasting memories I have instead been wasting all of my time on memorizing facts for a test... Facts that I will most probably forget.
This isn't right, if I am was to die today I don't want to be remembered like that. That is not who I truly am.
I want to be remembered differently, I want to leave this world with a lasting legacy and be remembered for making a change. I don't want to be just a name that gets lost with the wind and that every once in a while is thrown into a conversation only to be forgotten a few moment later.
As Steve Jobs famously said in his Stanford Speech "live everyday as if it were your last. Look yourself everyday in the mirror and think of this was your final day in this world will you be satisfied?"
For myself the answer was no so I have decided to make a change. I want to be able to get up every morning looking at myself in the mirror and say I am proud of who I am. Those day when I got mad for no reason at little things that probably wouldn't bother me 20 minutes later are gone. I don't want to come to the end of my life thinking "I regret loosing that friendship"
My new mentality will challenge me to be even better the next day that I was the previous one because only that way will I know that I am challenging myself to become even better and thus, leaving a lasting legacy.
Although, sometimes I will slip and the old me will come back to haunt me I can't let him take over my body. "I am the master of my souls and the captain of my fate". Only I am the one who chooses my path and I have clearly defined it.
I want to me remembered as a legend and for that sacrifices will have to be made. However, the most important thing to change will be moving from the fixed mindset mentality of only caring about grades and instead focus on creating friendships and memories that will stay with me forever.