All my life, I’ve been a slacker. I was the kid teachers were hunting down late work from and I wrote papers the night before (sometimes even the day) they were due. If I ever studied for a test, it was because I needed to pass it in order to stay in the class. Rather than catching up on school work, I snuck out to go to parties every weekend. My lack of motivation angered my mom to no end and she was always on my back about grades and scholarships. Even though my carelessness in high school has come back to bite me quite a bit, I would not change a single thing if I had the opportunity because it has helped me to become a successful college student today.
Despite barely maintaining above a 3.0 GPA in high school, in my first year of college I’ve made the Dean’s List while double majoring, being involved in numerous student organizations and holding leadership positions in some, and working part-time. This is fairly standard for a student at my college, but for me, it’s like I’m not the same person at all and I attribute part of that to my slacker high school self.
For starters, when it comes to scholarships, my high school GPA was not my best asset. Because of that, I missed out on some big scholarship opportunities. Knowing that college is the biggest investment of my life and that my own doing made it cost the enormous amount that it does motivates me more than anything else ever could.
Along with the sheer cost of my college education, my high school self learned at an early age that all-nighters are not fun. I cannot count on both hands how many all-nighters I pulled that could have easily been prevented by not procrastinating. Thanks to that mistake made in high school, I now try to prevent all-nighters at all costs. This has lead to better quality work and my stress level is much lower as well.
Slacking helped me to figure out when to go out and when it’s much more worth it to stay home. That was the biggest lesson I learned from slacking. I spent too many Sundays sleeping all day instead of studying for tests. Also, I would barely be able to stay awake for Saturday mornings at 8 am swim practice. Thanks to this, I learned early on that there’s a time for partying and a time for cracking down.
My high school experience was definitely not a story you’d expect from a double major on the dean’s list, I’ll be the first to admit it. Many others who acted like me in their teenage years are not as lucky as I am to grow out of that phase and learn from it. However, I did learn from my wild and crazy high school days, and I feel that I am all the more successful for it now.
