As first and second generation Asian Americans of the 21st century, we the teenagers of the Bay Area often find ourselves faced with a sort of injustice. This injustice, which is most conspicuous during June and college admissions season, acts much like a sort of dark looming force, a sort of large grey cloud leering at and watching over rejected high school seniors, while frightening insecure little underclassmen living in this socio-economic bubble known as Silicon Valley as they keep tabs on who’s going where. When it comes to colleges, high school students of the Bay Area find that their biggest enemy (and greatest fear) is not a rejection letter from Harvard, but the greedy fingers and glittering eyes of nosy parents who await your arrival at one’s doorstep for the senior pullout and the mindblowing stats of those accepted on College Confidential. So it seems that the main source of pressure we receive from planning our individual futures may be directly derived from those who choose to give us life in the first place. These strange creatures who feed us, shelter us, and give us their undivided care and attention are the same ones who inform us that anything short of Columbia University is worthless. Because of the pressure that they incorporate into our lives, we cry out in frustration, outraged at the fact that we are expected to live up to their seemingly unattainable standards.
But really? Part of the fault lies in ourselves. We feel upset when we are curtly notified that an enrollment at UC Irvine will result in an unsuccessful life, but at the same time, we allow ourselves to believe such misrepresentations. While teenagers such as you and I sit at home, sulking over the fact that we are spending the first eighteen years of our lives at the Ivy League boot camps that we call home, our minds are also giving in to the beliefs arrogantly expressed by our parents. We begin the path of life thinking that all college students are incredible beings whom we will never catch up to in terms of intelligence, and then we somehow find ourselves sauntering through high school, holding the belief that UC Santa Barbara is for failures and those who wish to party hard.
I can hear the angry protests of curious readers in my mind as I write this; before my imagination becomes reality, allow me to explain what I mean. While not all of us scoff at the campus of San Jose City College when we drive past it, enough would consider doing so that I don’t feel too remorseful when creating such a generalization towards my peers. Thus, this essay is for you. You, who snickered at the thought of going to community college while participating in an entertaining conversation with your math teacher. You, who proudly told your class that UC Merced is for the hopeless. And yes, you who aggravated me so deeply with your remark that the president of a rather large organization on campus “only” went to UC Davis that I felt unsure as to whether I was facing serious fever symptoms or not in my heated anger. I certainly hope that you keep a much more open mind than the one you previously displayed in public while reading this in the privacy of your own home.
Perhaps we can blame such habits of misjudgment on being poorly influenced by our parents, but that simply doesn’t rank as an excuse in my book. We may have grown up with their teachings, not fully capable of distinguishing whether their beliefs were right or wrong, but we are adolescents now. Am I being too subtle? We are growing up; we are nearly adults; we are becoming a part of society ourselves. Do you really wish to inflict the pain and pressure that you felt growing up on the children of the next generation? Unless I am speaking to a group of bitter, vindictive people (which I’m fairly certain that I’m not), I believe the answer is no. Why do we allow ourselves to indulge in forming the same grand errors in judgment that loving Mom and Dad made against us and our classmates? It only adds to the pressure that our peers, our siblings, and we ourselves must face.
While I would like to end this rant by claiming that the University of Wisconsin is stupendous, I cannot, as I know nothing about it and therefore am unable to pass judgment. However, if there is one note I should like to leave you with, it is this: why do we bother caring about who went where in terms of colleges? It doesn’t increase our own chances of attending our dream schools, because unfortunately for us, that person who is going there probably didn’t bother to helpfully supply us with a list of their extracurriculars and SAT scores. A student at Yale University isn’t necessarily going to win the Nobel Prize in Physics (though admittedly (s)he is still quite outstanding), and one who chooses to attend Ohlone College in Fremont, California, shouldn’t be passed by as a failure. We are mere high school students; we aren’t going anywhere just yet, so why bother judging those who are? That’s doing exactly what we hate to see our parents do, and labels us as nothing but a mob of hypocrites.
Besides, when one choose to snicker at a girl who’s attending San Jose State University, we’re forgetting a few things, and that includes this: even the most unremarkable of colleges has a few things to offer. While we may not be interested in their positive aspects, others do, and it’s our duty to respect that. And secondly, some of us can’t afford to go to our dream schools, even with a few scholarships here and there. When such a fantasy is shattered and one is forced to attend someplace else, shouldn’t we remain quiet as a means of paying our respects? You never know – in a few years, that could be you.
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