Sunday, January 18, 2009

The Profoundness of a Mirror-Inspiration

By: Michael Lenoch

Last year, I attended a public high school for my freshman year, and was met by a tremendous sense of a mirror, or opposite inspiration due to my relatively fervent effort and high hopes to one day reach the private Catholic high school I originally should have set my sights on prior to beginning high school.

But now that I currently attend the Catholic high school I worked so hard to get into, I have found it more difficult to work just as hard as I did at the public high school, as there are fewer stupid individuals to live as the opposite of.

And by that account, I believe it was so easy to work hard at the public high school because of the utter stupidity, laziness, and gluttony I witnessed of illegal substances teens are notorious for such as weed and alcohol. I think the poor attendance and lack of effort I witnessed at the public school provided a constant, opposite inspiration of a terrible work ethic and lifestyle that I was committed never to never live by.

2 comments:

Jak Doogal said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jak Doogal said...

(wow this turned out to be way to long)

Its rare in life that you find yourself motivated to work less when in the company of those driven to achieve "x". In fact, I would say that it is more often that you take on the characteristics of the group of people you are currently surrounded by instead of what you propose.

Also, at Ignatius there are two groups (reading further you might find this reductionist concept hypocritical -- fine). The first are those that you have already stereotyped as being ignorant and demeaning. The second are those that fit into the description you posted for those that attend Hinsdale Central (I'm guessing that's where you went?...). What you have to realize is that its dangerous to do this, because the truth is that in both of those groups exist people of outstanding qualities.

I was always the one "fed up with the system" and as such found myself in your shoes regarding looking down upon classmates who "blindly" work to achieve a grade. I accept that those kids do exist, and it is possible that they are even more prevalent at Ignatius than at your previous school. Yet what matters is motivations and goals. There are a good number of kids here that realize that one must "play the game" in order to "win". Yes the gap between the Ivy Leagues and U of I isn't as large as one is led to believe, but there still is one. These kids are intelligent, and do have original thoughts.

The other group is equally worthy. These kids are often in the same situation as you, disillusioned with school and looking for better alternatives. I ask you to truly look into what makes alcohol and marijuana amoral. Your argument might have to do with excess, but didn't Aristotle teach that anything in excess is bad. But I digress. What I'm trying to say is that you don't understand Ignatius to its fullest yet, and you write off your previous classmates too quickly.

A quick note: you will find me calling people assholes more often than Jeff Green making a joke on liking a game based on his employment at EA (that is very, very often).

Oh, and hint: Its not right to classify Ignatius into two categories, but its all I have energy for right now. A lot of people think we live in an either/or world, but in reality its both/and. Example: I thought I could either post this, or antique you. But in reality I can both post this and antique you. Now the question is, am I kidding, or not?