Students Should Remember to Keep a Level Head in Triumph

by Serena Mlawsky ‘17

While being accepted into college is exciting and well deserved, there is a fine line between being proud and being obnoxious when it comes to bragging. It’s understandable that seniors want to share their positive news; however, is it necessary to share it at every single possible opportunity? At some point, the accomplishments of students as well as their sense of humility are undermined when they post acceptance letters on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as share the news during classes and extracurricular activities. We get the point, you are going to college.

Surely earning a high GPA and SAT or ACT scores is a very impressive thing to do, but it does not correlate to intelligence. The students who brag may have earned 5’s on the AP Lang exam and straight A’s all four quarters, but failed the lessons on humility that were taught in kindergarten. To put this into more relatable terms, if someone was asked to prom by 10 other people, wouldn’t it seem obnoxious if that person took pictures of all of their prospective dates and posted them on social media for everyone to see, especially when some students aren’t attending because they don’t have anyone to go with?

Unfortunately, some students may not have cruised through high school. Problems at home could have detracted from students’ focus on their grades. Some may have struggled socially or with learning disabilities, impeding their confidence and impacting their work ethic. Financial restrictions limit accessibility to tutoring, as well as applying to schools and affording college in general. Some students are waitlisted or deferred, prolonging the agony of uncertainty for months on end. Others are flat-out rejected.

Empathy is lost when one takes the effort to physically take pictures of the acceptance letters, post them on the Internet, then make yet another post about them, as well as verbally bragging to classmates. If students can go to such great lengths to make their pride so conspicuous, couldn’t they make the effort to be a little more reserved and keep those who aren’t as fortunate in mind? Of course accomplishments are something to be celebrated, but not everyone in the world needs to know; or frankly cares. The need for compassion and sensitivity are more important than the validation of others approving of one’s college acceptances.