After returning from the long-awaited fall break, I had signed up to host two prospective students overnight. I had a packed schedule that Tuesday, but I was incredibly excited to host my first “prospies.” I wanted to show them everything wonderful about Bryn Mawr, quell their fears about the stressful college admissions process, and answer any and all questions they had about Bryn Mawr or college life in general.
What I didn’t expect to do is think about the advice I or another Owl Ambassador had given, and how it still applies to life, even now.
Without going too far into specifics, there was concern about perceived mistakes and failures. I found myself and my friend remarking that having the initiative to confront, bring up, and address how one plans to move forward from past problems was really indicative of good character. To quote my friend (Sonya Fucci) directly, “Turn your weaknesses into strengths.”
Something I’ve realized recently is that although a lot of the college application process is a mess of unrealistic expectations, the ideas of initiative and using your weaknesses to your advantage are the only things that really matter in the long run. What I have noticed is that while it’s important that one likes the college they attend and have opportunities, the actual college you go to matters very little in this respect.
I suppose this also depends on your understanding of success. I know that for many, success translates to something like “Money = happiness = success.” And while I certainly don’t dislike money (honestly, I’m a college student), I think it’s dangerous to define success in this way. While my views on life are fluid and are continuously being shaped by my experiences at home and at college, I like to think of success as more of a byproduct of doing things that I think matter.
After college, in a job market that honestly no longer guarantees a job with a degree and a world where people idealize their lives on social media, how could it possibly be beneficial to acknowledge your weaknesses? Well, I never said people should go out and yell from the rooftops, “I can’t do math!”
At the same time, as is often the case in a simple college interview, I think it’s admirable to confront one’s past failures and current weaknesses and say “I know what is wrong, and this is how I am going to fix it.”
No matter where we go in life, there will always be people shifting the blame and refusing to take responsibility for themselves. Still, I think we can break that trend, once we realize that taking ownership of our faults shows a great deal of strength and maturity. These traits are essential, I think, to achieving real success.