Monday, January 17, 2005
MLK300 and Award Ceremonies
In seventh grade, we were required to write a 300 word essay about Martin Luther King for some sort of city-wide essay contest in Omaha. So as has always been my nature, I waited until the last minute to start working on it. Of course, now I actually write things for fun, but back then this was an excruciating experience. I'm sure I wanted to do nothing else but to go outside and ride my awesome bmx bike. Every word was a battle, and I was being slowly defeated as the afternoon wore on. Then I remembered a trick... You can quote other people, and those words you quote count towards the 300! I don't think I still have a copy of the essay, but I'm positive that over half of it was written by the Omaha World Herald.
So you can imagine my surprise that I won 3rd place, not out of my class, but out of all the essays from the other schools in the citythat participated. Some of you would think that's neat or some kind of honor, but you'd be wrong. Winning things means you have to dress up and go sit through some ceremony for the winners of the essay contest and stand up and be recognized, receive some kind of award certificate, etc... How could this have happened? I was being punished for my reluctant brilliance. I learned an important lesson that day.
I was able to put that lesson to use, though, when I graduated from high school. If you were one of the top 25 students in the class of about 350 or so, you received some special honor, and had to go to a whole other ceremony in addition to graduation. So I was extremely pleased with myself when I found out that I was #26. I had reached my goal of being as good as possible without being noticed. And that was the proudest moment of my life.
So you can imagine my surprise that I won 3rd place, not out of my class, but out of all the essays from the other schools in the citythat participated. Some of you would think that's neat or some kind of honor, but you'd be wrong. Winning things means you have to dress up and go sit through some ceremony for the winners of the essay contest and stand up and be recognized, receive some kind of award certificate, etc... How could this have happened? I was being punished for my reluctant brilliance. I learned an important lesson that day.
I was able to put that lesson to use, though, when I graduated from high school. If you were one of the top 25 students in the class of about 350 or so, you received some special honor, and had to go to a whole other ceremony in addition to graduation. So I was extremely pleased with myself when I found out that I was #26. I had reached my goal of being as good as possible without being noticed. And that was the proudest moment of my life.
Comments:
<< Home
"I had reached my goal of being as good as possible without being noticed."
If this isn't a motto for life, I don't know what is. My wife was a 4.0 student, but refused to go to the awards dinners and whatnot because she didn't want to hear anyone say anything about her. I mean, can't people just be able to succeed in private?
I think this story will ring true to a lot of people. Sometimes, being publicly rewarded is just enough incentive to fail on purpose.
If this isn't a motto for life, I don't know what is. My wife was a 4.0 student, but refused to go to the awards dinners and whatnot because she didn't want to hear anyone say anything about her. I mean, can't people just be able to succeed in private?
I think this story will ring true to a lot of people. Sometimes, being publicly rewarded is just enough incentive to fail on purpose.
"I think this story will ring true to a lot of people. Sometimes, being publicly rewarded is just enough incentive to fail on purpose."
The thing is, if you did something really worthwhile and worthy of some sort of praise, won't people recognize it without a ceremony celebrating it anyway?
I got a 4.0 in high school, too, though even that wasn't enough to push me into the top 25, thank goodness. I faired much, much worse in college.
The thing is, if you did something really worthwhile and worthy of some sort of praise, won't people recognize it without a ceremony celebrating it anyway?
I got a 4.0 in high school, too, though even that wasn't enough to push me into the top 25, thank goodness. I faired much, much worse in college.
Your graduating class had more than 26 4.0 students? Where did you go, Steven Hawking High? My graduating class was maybe 100 people, so that's astronomical in my head. Good for you! (I did better in College than High School, though I don't know why.)
You know what, you're right! If something needs a ceremony thrown for the purpose of recognizing it, then maybe it wasn't a big enough accomplishment to warrant one in the first place. I'm not taking anything away from a 4.0 at all, but big accomplishments need no external promotion.
You know what, you're right! If something needs a ceremony thrown for the purpose of recognizing it, then maybe it wasn't a big enough accomplishment to warrant one in the first place. I'm not taking anything away from a 4.0 at all, but big accomplishments need no external promotion.
It was a graduating class of a little over 350. And I took a bunch of honors classes, which if you get an A in those, you get 5.0 averaged into your GPA. So I think most of the people above me had above 4.0. Also, lest someone think I'm trying to sound smart, I barely graduated college because my gpa in my major classes was too low, I had to negotiate with the registrar and stuff. I also failed a class my last semester and had to stick around a year, which was neat. Engineering majors shouldn't be in bands.
This reminds me of how mortified I was when it was announced on the loud speaker my freshman year of highschool that my science fair project had made it to regionals....This immediately qualifies one as a nerd, and I was on the fine line between nerd and cool.....(I'm not sure if I was a nerdy cool person or a cool nerd...but I was definitely not committed to either side...) I was soooo mad because not only was I singled out in the middle of class in front of everyone (hello red face), I HATED science and the last thing I wanted to do was waste a Saturday at the regional science fair. I pretty much copied my project from a friend of mine....so I had little vested in it.
On another note, my friend Nikki and I did find a way to amuse ourselves when all the science fair projects were on display....we had to "tour" the exhibits with our class and we decided to make one of the projects our own. There was a wire with some kind of metal contraption connected to it and a plank of wood in the middle of the exhibit....we stood by it, pretending it was ours and as people came up, we would have them put their chins on the plank and squeeze the metal dealy....we'd ask them if they felt anything and after many attempts most people figured out that we had no idea what we were taking about, but a couple of people said they felt "it"....we thought we were so clever.
On another note, my friend Nikki and I did find a way to amuse ourselves when all the science fair projects were on display....we had to "tour" the exhibits with our class and we decided to make one of the projects our own. There was a wire with some kind of metal contraption connected to it and a plank of wood in the middle of the exhibit....we stood by it, pretending it was ours and as people came up, we would have them put their chins on the plank and squeeze the metal dealy....we'd ask them if they felt anything and after many attempts most people figured out that we had no idea what we were taking about, but a couple of people said they felt "it"....we thought we were so clever.
That made me literally laugh out loud. I think I felt it!
How does an INFP know anything about science, anyway?
How does an INFP know anything about science, anyway?
This reminds me of when I dropped out of college because my grades sucked because I invested much of my time into road trips to arkansas. I quit going to class halfway through the semester, and only took 1 final, I got a 2.0 that semester. I was very proud!!
Favorite achievement that year: Teaching "THE SPRINKLER" to a room full of relative strangers while Jonny & the band played on.
Favorite achievement that year: Teaching "THE SPRINKLER" to a room full of relative strangers while Jonny & the band played on.
The Sprinkler made it all worthwhile.
Matt E and I were just talking the other day about how you always seemed to magically pick the action packed weekends when the weather was beautiful, there was tons of stuff to do, and gorgeous women hanging out with us for some reason.
Post a Comment
Matt E and I were just talking the other day about how you always seemed to magically pick the action packed weekends when the weather was beautiful, there was tons of stuff to do, and gorgeous women hanging out with us for some reason.
<< Home
