SMACK

I have the type of parents that started a college fund as soon as I was born; the parents who sent me to the "alternative learning" kindergarten to ensure I started at the top of my class; the parents who had me learn SAT words while eating cereal at age 6; the parents who were convinced I should be in a special, after-school math program; and the parents who, now, would rather I leave school and become a farmer. 

I’ve been struggling unnecessarily to write these posts for class, and so I’m going to try to do a little writing on why that might be.

My freshmen year of high school, one of my friends was asked to leave due to inappropriate behavior. Shortly after he was asked to leave, two more guys from his friend group were also expelled. I went to a Catholic high school with strict rules on drugs and proper behavior. I stayed friendly with the three boys that left and saw them around from time to time. By the time we were seniors, two of the three boys had dropped out of the public school they attended. Both of these boys were involved in heavy drug use and spent time with a "dangerous" crowd. The year that I graduated high school, one of the boys was in prison and the other was in the hospital. The boy in prison had been dealing cocaine and got caught. Today, he is still in and out of prison, living on various friends' couches.

Both of my parents went to respectable colleges, and left no doubt in my mind that I would also be attending a high ranking college. As a child, they sent me to math groups for advanced students, had me attend numerous piano lessons, and encouraged me to be active in athletics as well as activities. My father had gone to Yale, a school that is "very good but never something we, as kids, should brag about." When I was a sophomore in high school, my brother followed our father's footsteps and also attended Yale. Immediately, I felt the weight of my college life fall upon me. Although no girl in my family had attended Yale, it was silently assumed that I would apply there as well. I continued to strive for perfection and for the praise of my parents.