Post by gracefons on Aug 9, 2011 23:35:54 GMT -5
Coming from a horror struck, stressed, scared, and altogether confused person about college and the future, this article was nothing short of terrifying. I have never been the most studious student in the class because I tend to have a slightly less than normal attention span on top of being incredibly too lazy. While these are my own adolescent problems, maybe the Princeton students at the beginning of, "The Organization Kid" are different. My study skills aren't exactly up to par or what the average Princeton student's might be, but they're getting better. And also unlike these Princeton students, I am not totally confident about landing a solid job upon my college graduation. David Brooks, the author of "The Organization Kid", states in one paragraph, "Everyone I spoke to felt confident that he or she could get a good job after graduation." I'm worried about getting into a good school let alone a decent job afterward. However, I may just be alone in that concern. We all have or had that one person growing up or in school who we can say with dignity, "that person is going places and they are going to do well in life." Everyone has one. Whether that person actually follows through with our opinion or not doesn't matter. It is a constant battle of comparison. And to that person who is "going places in life, " they still have someone they can say that about too. However, it's true that different people have different levels of work ethic. Some have motivation problems, some are just lazy, and some get right down to it. No one person is the same.
Last November I took my mother to a spiritual finding youth retreat that allowed a minimal amount of adults. It was my third time participating in this retreat while it was her first. It is a very deep retreat that focuses on looking within and trying to find yourself and who you really are among other things. At one point, your small group goes in front of the larger group and truly pours out what is bothering each individual. It was safe to say that out of about a total of 45-50 kids or participants, at the most, 5 did not say that they were scared of the future. While being scared of the future is a pretty broad fear and not necessarily uncommon, these kids delve deeper into why they are really scared. And with each new speaker, a new individual and personal reason was added to why they were so intimidated by it. After such a moving weekend, I asked my mother what was the biggest thing she got out of it or was taking home from it. I was shocked to hear her say that it was how many kids were so worried and scared about the future and growing up. She continued on to explain that when she was our age, kids were never as frightened as we were as best as they could remember. This became a general consensus for the adults who participated in the weekend. Personally, it's all I think about.
Last November I took my mother to a spiritual finding youth retreat that allowed a minimal amount of adults. It was my third time participating in this retreat while it was her first. It is a very deep retreat that focuses on looking within and trying to find yourself and who you really are among other things. At one point, your small group goes in front of the larger group and truly pours out what is bothering each individual. It was safe to say that out of about a total of 45-50 kids or participants, at the most, 5 did not say that they were scared of the future. While being scared of the future is a pretty broad fear and not necessarily uncommon, these kids delve deeper into why they are really scared. And with each new speaker, a new individual and personal reason was added to why they were so intimidated by it. After such a moving weekend, I asked my mother what was the biggest thing she got out of it or was taking home from it. I was shocked to hear her say that it was how many kids were so worried and scared about the future and growing up. She continued on to explain that when she was our age, kids were never as frightened as we were as best as they could remember. This became a general consensus for the adults who participated in the weekend. Personally, it's all I think about.