Standing Out

For the first time in my life, I DO stand out!

Going into first year, my confidence was low. Constantly I heard stories about the exceptionalists. My high school teachers told stories about the "brains" that they went to school with and it seemed to me like the whole world would do better than me at everything. I heard rumors of how, "your average drops yada-yada percent in post-secondary" and, like most people, I assumed these rules applied to me. My average was eighty-something in high school; pretty good, but, I figured it was definitely not good enough to compete in a "great" place like university.

At the beginning of first year, I signed up for a program that asked me to fill out surveys once a month for the entire year. I remember one of the questions on the survey was always, "What do you expect your average to be at the end of the year". At this point, I expected 70's in university -- pretty good, but still "average". However, after getting back my first mid-term, I did better than I thought I could. But, of course, I thought it was a fluke. I got another mid-term back and did okay; so, now I was not really sure where I stood. When the next set of surveys came, I remember thinking that maybe I could actually pull off an 80 average in university. On the next few mid-terms, I started studying with confidence, and I did even better.

I have now completed almost 3 years of university and have a 4.0 GPA. It took me a very long time to realize that it IS possible to stand out in university. Beyond schoolwork, I have learned that getting involved in school activities is not for "exceptionalists", but it can be for anyone -- even me!

Going into first year, I assumed that all great things were done by "greats". But it took me much experience to realize that great things are done by regular people.