The last day of school. Something we look forward to year round but when the day finally arrives, some of us can’t help but feel a bit down. With summer break just starting, I too feel melancholic, and guilty. This past year, I felt like I hadn’t put any effort into anything really and now I am strongly rethinking my past decisions. I learned a valuable lesson to say the least. It took all year for it to finally hit me but I think I get it now, and for those who are reading this, I hope with the bottom of my heart that you take advantage of my mistakes.

Getting too comfortable is the greatest killer. You probably heard something like this before. That’s what I had thought, and here I am feeling like a failure. For context, I always wanted to be “smart” and have outstanding academic achievement. I planned to make my parents smile when I could show them my amazing scores and actually do something for them for once in my life. But I don’t think I ever did that once. This year, I blamed the pandemic and virtual learning for my laziness. I turned homework in late, started homework at midnight literally, and prioritized videogames and whatnot. The worst part, I’m not even good at videogames. Where was my mistake? In hindsight, it was EVERYTHING, my mindset, goals, and lack of disciplined. I accepted mediocre grades and poor work ethic, I allowed myself to settle for the bare minimum. Thus, I am now entering summer break feeling like it is undeserved, which is saying something since summer should be nothing but fun.

Sure, maybe a high grade point average or being the top of the class isn’t everything to obsess over. But for me, I feel like I hadn’t put all my effort into anything academic, creative, or even into a sport. At the end of the day, we can only asks ourselves to do the best we can. If I had done that and received poor results, I could smile and say “At least I did my best”. But I didn’t.

To anyone who is reading this, don’t ever settle. Stay hungry for more success because it is always the long hours of hard and smart work that determine how fly you can go. After all, it is always the journey that is more important than the destination. Trust me when I say, put in the work now for whatever aspiration you have. Settling down will suddenly take a year, or two, or twenty in an instant so don’t ever do it. Life is so very precious and if we don’t use this beautiful gift we have been given, then there there will be no meaning in it.