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“You
have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself
in any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know.
And you are the guy who'll decide where to go”.
-Dr. Suess
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SELF-DIRECTION
The
Merriam-Webster dictionary describes self-direction as personal independence,
the ability to direct and guide oneself. Now, you may be asking, what does any
of this have to do with high school? Well, as you progress through your
academic career, you are going to face many decisions and responsibilities that
you may never have had to face before. This is because, for the first time you
are going to be expected to really take your life into your own hands and make
your own decisions, not only in school but also in life. Now you may be
thinking, “well this doesn’t sound too hard”, and for some of you, it won’t be.
For many others, however, there can be much difficulty in learning to self-direct
yourself. Take me for example.
When
I first entered high school I wasn’t sure what to expect. Sure, I knew it
was a step up from middle school and that I was beginning to develop as a young
adult, but I had never actually thought about what that truly meant. As my
freshman year began to take it’s course, I realized more and more that the
adult figures in my life were giving me more freedom in terms of what I wanted
to do and how I wanted to do it. The only problem was, I had no idea which
direction I wanted to take myself. I mean sure, I wanted to go to college but
at the time the thought overwhelmed me. I kept thinking, is that what I really
want to do? I began getting so overwhelmed with the thoughts of my future that
I tried to not think about it all together. In midst of it all I began not to
care. By the end of my freshman year my grades had begun to slip and by the end
of my sophomore year, I had barely passed by the skin of my teeth and had to
attend summer school. By the time I had finally decided to care about going to
college, I thought it was too late. I figured I had already messed up so badly
that it discouraged me from even wanting to try. It wasn’t until I started SAT
prep in the fall of my junior year that I began seeing college as a viable
option for myself. I began to realize that colleges, though very important, do
not only look for grades in their applicants. Although my grades were not great
I had other things to offer them in areas such as my extra curricular and test
scores. Though this opened up options for me, I was still realistic about my
application process. I knew there were still many schools I could not get into
because of my poor GPA. So, I began doing a lot of research into finding
schools that were possible and realistic for an applicant like myself. I
surprisingly found that there were many schools that were not necessarily out
of reach for me. Once I decided on the schools I was applying to, I made sure
to visit their campus and to set up interviews with admission counselors in
order to make more of an impression of me as a person. Though I found a lot of difficulty
in my college application process, it paid off and I am proud to say that in
the fall of 2014 I will be an incoming freshman at a small liberal arts college
in Virginia.
Now, I realize that all of you may not struggle with self-direction the way I did, but for those of who do, there’s nothing to be worried about. There are steps that you can take in order to make a smooth transition…
- Evaluate Yourself- Try, as
best you can, to figure out who you are as a person and where your
strengths and weaknesses are. This will help in setting a path for yourself.
- Create Goals- Now,
these don’t necessarily have to be big life goals but even by setting
little goals like doing well in a class or making sure to maintain a GPA
can help in leading you in a direction you may want to go.
- Be Proactive- once
you’ve set goals for yourself it is really up to you to meet them. If
there’s a college you want to get into then figure out what requirements
you need in order to get in or if you want to go straight into the
workforce after high school see what you can do to qualify for the job.
- Have Confidence in Yourself- It is
really important to maintain confidence in not only yourself but in the
choices you are making. If you are self-doubting yourself constantly, it
makes it difficult to push yourself in the direction you want to go.
Although I
eventually figured out the direction I wanted go, my delay in the process
certainly limited my choices. Though I know it can be difficult to choose a
direction to go, I feel that it is important to try and figure it out as early
as possible as it will only further benefit yourself. I’m not saying you have
figure everything out all at once, but even just sending yourself in a positive
direction will be rewarding. Everyone, however, will go on their own paths and
eventually find their own way.