May the odds be ever in your favor.
Yeah, you could say that again. Over and over, time after time, you probably hear from whoever makes up your support system “good luck.” And isn’t that the same as “may the odds be ever in your favor”?
We’re basically living the same life as Katniss and Peeta, broken up into our districts of majors and competing against each other for a sustainable and better life than that which we inhabit today. We study to do better than others, we work out to be more physically fit and we eat well to be stronger and have healthier immune systems. Sounds like Darwin’s survival of the fittest, if you ask me.
Katniss and Peeta are chosen at random. Their names are entered into a drawing to be chosen to enter this competitive lifestyle until they either win or die. Much like the drawing, we enter ourselves voluntarily into a pool, otherwise known as the college application process. We put all our information into a Common App, trying our best to make our names stand out. Meanwhile, Peeta and Katniss have their names repeatedly entered into the drawing because of their impoverished lifestyles. So, yes, maybe our names are put in voluntarily whereas theirs are not, but at least when they complain about their struggle they didn’t apply to it.
Each district of “The Hunger Games” sends tributes to the Games. Similarly, each state from the USA sends students to universities across the nation who highly value and promote their intake of “out-of-state students,” to compete against other highly qualified teenagers and young adults academically and physically. Tributes from "The Hunger Games" compete with their wits, their street smarts and their learned knowledge, as well as their innate physical skill and strength in order to edge out their competition and find others’ weaknesses. Like this, students attend classes every day, study throughout long nights in the libraries, frequent the gym and load up at the salad bar while increasing their intake of protein to better their chances of surviving the winters, acing tests and finals and succeed physically during long weeks of school work and lack of sleep.
Yet there is one main difference I have forgotten to mention. A difference between the games and college is the number of those who can succeed. Yes, that one internship only takes 3 people a summer, so maybe that example is extremely similar to the games where typically only one tribute can win. However, students today succeed in more than just career labels. College students succeed in friendships, relationships, maturity, confidence, and respect -- attributes the games never test.
Most students, regardless of their major (district), and regardless of their physical strength, earn amazing jobs and post-graduation opportunities. Sure, one student (tribute) might get that job you wanted more than anything, but you’re not out of the games forever, you just have to find a new way to get what you want. For example, split the poisonous berries; don’t just give them to someone who you think deserves success less.
