I knew a guy back in high school who got mostly C’s and didn’t participate in any activities. After graduation, he headed off to a college that admitted pretty much everyone and was generally regarded as a party school (a reputation he certainly did his part to maintain based on his tales from his freshman year in the dorms). He was a nice guy; he just didn’t expend much effort in school. If asked, I’m guessing most people from high school wouldn’t have expected much of him in the future.
Today, I learned through the wonders of Facebook that he runs a large, very successful psychotherapy practice.
My message here is not that high school doesn’t matter. These years are formative, and the more you can develop traits like a work ethic and an investment in your future, the more successful you’re likely going to be.
But who you are at 17 doesn’t necessarily define who you’ll be at 40. A “C” in algebra, a below-average SAT score, a cut from the basketball team, none of those things have to matter in the not-too-distant future if you don’t want them to. You just have to keep going.
I don’t know when or how my high school acquaintance reinvented himself. But I’m guessing he had some serious ground to make up to get admitted to graduate school and start down the path to where he is today. It couldn’t have been easy. He should be really proud that he’s doing great work he cares about in a way that he probably never could have imagined for himself when he was 17.
If you’re a C student who’s not trying very hard, it doesn’t mean that you have to be that way for life. Don’t lock yourself into that role just because you think it’s too late to change. Colleges love to see upward trends where students get academically better with age. And once you get to college, nobody will know or care what your persona was back in high school.
If you don’t want to be a C student for life, don’t wait to make the change. Start today. It probably won’t happen overnight. But once you start the process, momentum becomes your friend. Don’t wait to reinvent yourself.