As the school year comes to a close, and seniors end a chapter of their lives and depart on a new beginning, other grades continue to stress anxiously about their own futures. In an atmosphere of much stress and competition to get into the “best” colleges and receive the “best” careers in society, one can only really ask: is it even worth it? Is it worth it to lose your high school years enduring endless hours of stress due to homework, tests, and SAT scores? Is it really worth losing essentially being a teenager and having fun because of this drive to be on the top? In 2009, the eye-opening documentary the Race to Nowhere appeared in the U.S., uncovering the pressure that our education system has placed upon today’s youth. Is all of the stress truly worth it? And if it is, what is the final reward?

         In the bubble of Honors and Advanced Placement courses, the most popular questions among most students are “what was your grade on that test?” and “Where do you want to go to college?” For most, the second answer is quite simple: Harvard, Cornell, UCLA. There is intense pressure among peers to get to the top at all costs, with a dog-eat-dog mentality consuming our youth culture. Yet, at the same time, these students are also losing their childhood in what many consider to be the “race to nowhere.” Unfortunately, this drive to have the best grades and GPAs has even led to deception and cheating among peers. Cheating, on a scale from small homework assignments to classroom exams, has taken over many campuses across the nation. Instead of doing the moral thing, and getting into a school based upon their own true grades and work ethics, some resort to deception to get into that Ivy League.

         Individuals may repeatedly ask themselves that one soul-searching question that many anxiously fret over throughout their high school careers. Why do we do what we do? With the recession fueling on and bogging down our economy, jobs are scarce. At the same time, college tuition has only continued to increase. We can find the same happiness at Yale that we could find at a less difficult school to get into. We can be successful at a school regardless of its ranking or status. If you work your absolute hardest at that future school and pursue a major that you truly enjoy, that is what matters. As you go out into the real world and make a name for yourself just remember that happiness is more important than success. It is more fulfilling to be happy at a job that makes less income than be miserable in an occupation where you would be rich. Unfortunately, many students today disagree on this notion.

         Instead of trying to be that wealthy doctor or lawyer, we should use the tools we gained in school to do something good for our society. After college, instead of trying to find a job, do something noble and join the Peace Corps! Or work at a charity or maybe even just travel the world. We were all brought into this world for a reason, and we all have the power to institute positive change for those bestowed with less opportunities. Living in Orange County and going to a topnotch school like Beckman, we certainly have the power to exert change in the lives of others. 

         The overall message of this is not to persuade students to not do their homework or take less challenging courses, for if it was, it would be completely contradicting everything that students strive to achieve in high school. What it is simply stating is that we should do what we do for a true desire to learn and not to get into a university. And we should be okay with getting a B in a class or not getting a 2400 on the SAT. The truth is, if you tried your absolute hardest and did everything to the best of your abilities, than that is all that really matters. Every student will get into some college, and at that college they will be happy and experience some of the best years of their lives. For the seniors leaving us soon, good luck on your journey. And for the rest of us, just remember, there is more to life than being on top.