Let me tell you about grit. I have it. REAL grit. I can push myself through any workout. No matter how tough, no matter how much my arms shake or how many times I puke, I WILL finish that work out. I can push myself through any race situation. The half-way flags may just be coming out, and I may be tired, but I will NOT pull in to the pits and give in. I WILL push through the next 10 laps, and continue to race over the pavement at 280km/h hour with my body in an anaerobic state. I WILL finish the race, at 98% of my max heart rate, and I WILL try to win.
That grit? I can't use it when it comes to a school setting. It simply isn't important enough to me. Just because I know I can do the task at hand really well, doesn't mean I'm going to do it with that same passion that the person who isn't so good at the task but wants a good mark will. Actually, I may not even do it at all. I lack motivation to do these things, as to me, they don't add up to the big picture.
That's why Angela Lee Duckworth has a hit a major point in her research. I was always that kid that was smart but didn't perform so well. I wasn't motivated. I feel like there are a lot of kids out there like that, and that it is very important to develop that grit for school and work in these children. The only thing that motivated me when I was younger was seeing the "stupid" kids do better than me. That was infuriating and I absolutely positively could not have it be like that. So to have today's kids grow up to be successful, we need to teach these kids to push through the things they don't want to do and to be motivated towards doing well in the future.
In this blog post I am also supposed to introduce myself. Well, I do a lot of supposedly cool things, at least that's what people tell me. I am a photographer with a registered business, who has had her photos published in a variety of Canadian and American publications. I am a motorcycle racer. I have been racing for 5 years and have road raced motorcycles with three different organizations and in three different racing championships, including the most presitigious national championship, the CSBK Canadian Superbike Championship. I have raced all over Canada, including the provinces of Nova Scotia, Alberta, Quebec, and Ontario. I am an equestrian. I have been riding horses and competing in shows of different levels since I was four years old. I currently ride and compete on a quarterhorse mare that I lease named Misty at a 'A' level jumper barn in Puslinch. Apart from these three very major things in my life, I also wrestle on our schools wrestling team, snowboard, paint, and draw, all fairly well.
Apart from the things that most people know me for, who am I really?
I am Karolina Pelc, I am 18 years old, and I am a grade 12+ (yuck) student here at Lourdes.
I love animals. I have two Indian Ringneck parrots, a very large Spanish Mastiff dog, and a teeny tiny black cat at home. I love food. I also love to sleep, and work out, and I love music. Sometimes I get really tired of having to live up to all the cool things I do, and sometimes I just want to be that normal girl that comes home from school and sleeps for a few hours, instead of that busy photographer girl who comes home from school and has 8,653 photos waiting for her to edit from her last shoot. But that's life.
Karolina, I am looking forward to reading many interesting pieces from you. I perceive that your maturity level may be a notch ahead of some classmates in certain ways, and your cynicism about life is amusing, but try not to let a feeling of negativity invade all your work. In terms of technical feedback, I feel that you overuse questions. Asking your reader a question is much weaker than offering it as a statement. I see you put "stupid" in quotes to indicate that you are referring to a label rather than a face, but saying "less gifted" may be a more sensitive approach. You refer to your activities as "supposedly cool things" which has a negative undertone. Either accept that motorcycles, horses and photography ARE considered cool, or say that others perceive your interests as cool or intriguing. Finally, workout is a compound word.
ReplyDeleteSo this is how it will proceed. I will give you the level of feedback that I think you can handle. And I think you need me to give you a firm kick in the backside:) Glad to be working with you.
Hey, there are tons of authors that specialize in cynical works, don't discriminate just because it isn't your cup of tea. Just kidding, I write a lot of stuff like this but I don't let it "invade" all of my work. I used the questions to make the blog a little more informal, as it is a blog post and not a formal piece of writing. Anyways, I edited a few things out to make you happy but I left the "stupid" part in, 'cause I'm not really concerned about censoring myself or being sensitive. Plus, saying "less gifted" makes me sound like I think I'm special and better than everyone.
DeleteHappy to be in this course and making your job a little harder ;)