You know when a person is in a race, or those "walking marathons" one is forced to go to when you’re in elementary school and you go just to skip class? They always tell you to just go at the pace where you’re not wheezing and having a heart attack, but the snails on the ground aren’t beating you to it. Just pick a pace and stick to it. What does that have to do with anything, you ask, my dear readers? It has to do with a whole lot!
Almost three years ago, I left GA, and came back to my native country, Brazil. Despite being in my native country, I had only been educated here up to kindergarten. So, upon my return, you could imagine the difficulty learning everything in a new language. Not to mention, history I had never learned, geography I never studied…and everything here is very fast-paced. For those math-lovers like me, get this: no calculators, EVER. I’m doing calculus by hand. Portuguese is one of the hardest languages in the world. Coming to school here out of nowhere was totally overwhelming.
I have a friend, who also lived in the U.S., and came back at the same age. He had the same tools I did. He flunked two times, before giving up and just getting his GED (aka “Good Enough Diploma”). You know the difference? I picked the correct rhythm.
It’s not about spending all your free time studying. Do I do that? Of course not. I am the biggest procrastinator (a fancy word for slacker) on the face of the Earth. The kind that’s sitting on the couch with an enormous pot of ice cream watching “Scrubs” reruns thinking “I should probably be doing that physics paper that’s worth a huge chunk of my grade, hmmm…”. But the difference is I just refuse to fail at my education. I choose to educate myself in all ways possible, and that is what’s getting me to graduation next December, right on schedule.
I urge you to make this choice. It’s hard, I know. 7th grade has lots of drama, been there, done that. Things like, who stole her best friend’s boyfriend who is actually your third cousin twice removed but whom you totally love anyways. It’s hard to keep up. And if you’re like me, not very applied to numbers and scientific equations, educate yourself in the world around you.
I admit, I love politics, I really do. The day Obama was elected president of the US, I cried. Then I went around skipping and telling everyone who even glanced at me. Then, at the end of the year, a Brazillian TV network does a special program showing all the important things that happened in the past year (which I watch every year because I’m pathetic and have no social life), and they made this little video showing images of his campaign and election with this pretty little song. I cried again. But what do you think is better? Crying over the president or the Jonas Brothers? I just chose to take all my adolescent pent-up mostly unnecessary energy and put it somewhere that matters.
Read, Watch the news. Watch shows that talk about things that matter. I like humor, so I definitely watch “The Daily Show Global Edition with Jon Stewart”. If you want some classic politician humor, watch Sarah Palin’s interview with Katie Couric! It sounds useless, I know. But in the end, this will make a difference. Choose to be worldly. Choose to be cultured. Pick this pace and stick to it. Because, when you’re close to the end of the race, it will make all the difference in your life!