Growing Up

Growing up is a matter of balance. Morrow believes that adding another layer of complexity to a stage that is already as convoluted as an onion is ridiculous, yet as teens, its what we tend to do. It's like we are always looking to feel something more—on top of the endless possibilities of what activity we can do after school. As teens we want more and we want it now. It's why sometimes we turn to behaviours we know to be unhealthy. Eventually, we have to grow up ,and if we're lucky we'll find what we love to do, it will intersect with what we're good at, and where we can provide value in the world. It doesn't make it any easier; in fact, it's probably 10 times harder once you find what you want to do with your time, because it makes you feel guilty when you're not spending your time wisely. I'm lucky enough to have found what I enjoy. Here is my story. Growing up I was often called a nerd. To be honest, I took it as a compliment; I thought they were just saying I was smart. I was all-in on academics. I guess that's why I won "highest academic achievement" award at Frechette. But despite the validation of seeing green checkmarks on a piece of paper, I was bored. In reality, these checkmarks didn't mean anything. School was just a game, and one that I was good at playing. I wanted more, faster, and better, so I decided to apply for the IB program. And yeah, I got in, but this is why people say "be careful what you wish for". When I started IB, I was no longer at the top of my class. It was a whole different level at competition, but it didn't matter. In the end, I'd rather be a small fish in a big pond. Over time though, the workload grew heavier and heavier. I began to hate it. I didn't really mind heavy work in elementary school, because, well, it was all I did. But in high school I went deep into learning software development. Even the one video game I played on my virtual reality headset became boring. I was tired of playing games. I wanted to do stuff for the real world, not some glorified simulation of real work, that for some reason expects us to be an expert in every subject. When could you see that in the real world? All the ultra-successful entrepreneurs, researchers and alike were good at what they did not because they made no mistakes. They were successful because they spent an obsessive amount of time doing things. Did they make mistakes? Hell yeah. But failure is the best teacher, and it's how they became experts. There is an essay that I love, titled "Things that aren't doing the thing". Thinking about doing the thing, isn't doing the thing. Teens go through so many phases and troubles, that we need one thing—a north star, to anchor us in reality and refocus on what truly matters. I found my anchor in software development. Not just because I thought it was cool, but because it was the vehicle I could use to do magic—to create something out of nothing. Long story short, in the past year and a half I dropped out of IB, switched schools, ran for student council president, and built 7 apps with thousands of users. If there's one thing that can change your life path, it's seeing how you can provide value to other people. I remember being at the HNSS halloween dance and seeing people's faces light up when they saw that they could send the DJ any song request in real time from their phone, using an app I built. Even after all of this, I still didn't really fit in. I guess they were right when they said I was a nerd. But being a nerd is what kept me busy, used up my energy, and made me happy. Teens don't just need to be told to play basketball to be kept away from trouble. We need more than that. We need real one-on-one guidance to find what we're naturally inclined to do, and how we can serve the world with it. That's why one day I will build my own school. Everyone complains about our education system, but nobody actually does anything about it. If I fail, at least I'll have a crazy story to tell my grandkids