Burlington High School
Burlington, Kansas
Teacher: Mrs. Devra Parker
By Whitney Beyer
12th grade
A student has gone through three years of high school making it her first priority to do her most very best in order to achieve the goals that she has set up, to guide her in the right direction through life. Finally reaching her senior year, she will be judged on how hard she has worked compared to the classmates around her. As the year goes by she finds herself loosing site of what she worked so hard for. Each day becomes more of a battle to even get her mind focused on the assignment in hand. Her grades are slowly slipping with each day that passes. To say that it shocks her would be an overstatement. It only causes her to accept the fact that she is slacking, and she must now experience what it’s like to settle for less. This is a day-by-day summary for many adolescents in the United States. It’s the basis many adults use to conclude that with each generation there will be less and less effort put forward in many activities. Now the question is, have we abandoned excellence in today’s society? The answer many would agree with is, yes. America has pushed its excellence requirements to its maximum.
What is excellence? To me it is working towards an ambition that needs all the time and effort needed to be put into it. There is no such thing as accepting anything less than what I’m striving for. It means that no matter what happens that goal should be my number one priority with every day I live for. Setting standards becomes a very large factor, and to make sure that failing never comes close to any job I do. Giving up is always out of the question.
To prove this inquiry to it’s fullest, we can once again, look at the students of America. With the new technology in every classroom kids are lucky to only have to do half of the work many use to dream of. As many would hope, every kid should succeed since life has just become one step easier. Adults soon discover that what has been given to them, has now been taken advantage of. Students are spoiled, and soon feel that what is given to them is not enough. They’re honored with awards for accomplishing a goal many could not, but what they don’t realize is that, at one point and time every kid in high school had already met that standard and moved on. A good example of this is the graduated seniors who now attend college for the first time. They’re now on their own, with the only support they have as themselves. They soon find themselves in the wrong crowd, and are now up to their neck with late work. Finishing all the assignments that were long over due is too much of a hassle, so they make a not so wise decision of dropping out. Parents are now disappointed because they know that college was what many in their generation only were able to think of doing.
In today’s society kids find it easier to give up and face the consequences than to work hard and spark a sense of pride in their life. They feel that if they don’t set their standards very high then there is no having to deal with failure. What they don’t realize is that dealing with failure is a big part of life. Adolescents need to realize that they’re not going to meet every requirement during their life period, but not trying at all should not be acceptable.
I personally am not satisfied with the level at which I have set excellence at. I am a prime example of what America has gradually become. There are set goals in my life that I strive for, but I find very easy to accept that I may not be able to accomplish all that I hope for. I’ve realized that in order to achieve something big, I must first change the strategy I use in life in order to complete an ambition that I have in mind.
Judging the excellence for others is never the same for anybody. Many people go through life with very little and are satisfied with that. Excellence to them could be finishing a job that some might find to be very little. Others grow up with more than enough, which might cause them to work harder for larger goals. Determining excellence seems almost impossible to do. Although we soon find out that each person, individually, must set his or her own level of excellence, and it cannot be up to the population to vote on whether it’s enough or not.
No Answers To Questions Re: Required Reading
Disqualified For Prizes