by Kayti Komisarek
“We can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world – and none of it will make a difference, none of it will matter unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put it to hard work it takes to succeed. That’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education.” This is a paragraph from the speech Obama gave Tuesday September 8th, 2009 at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, directed to all students, from kindergarten to 12th grade. Obama’s speech was about goal setting, responsibility and staying in school, because if you don’t stay in school, you are giving up on your dreams and your future. Obama’s speech was very influential and he made a lot of good points. Goal setting can be very important and benefit everyone. Completing your goals and staying on task can help build responsibility.
No one should ever give up on a hopes or dreams, no one should ever quit school. You may think you have a tough life, and have so many decisions to make, but there will always be someone with more troubles then you. Setting a goal can help you stay on task and make good decisions, even if it is a small goal. Say you set a goal for this school year, like to never get any lower then a C+ in all of your classes. That is a goal that can keep you on track, so when all of your friends ask you to go out to the movies or the mall, you would choose to stay home and do your homework first, because staying committed to a goal is important. At the end of the year when you look at your grades you will feel good about yourself because you stayed committed to that goal. It is also nice to have motivational people around you. You never know what you are capable of until you try and you want to learn from your teachers and parents and possibly other students around you who may know more then you.
“The is being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject that you study. You won’t click with every teacher that you have. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right at this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s okay. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. J.K. Rowling’s – who wrote Harry Potter – her first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times before it was finally published. Michael Jordon was cut from his high school basketball team. He lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that’s why I succeed.”’ Obama brought this up because it is true; these people are famous and successful because they never took no for an answer. They believe in themselves. Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean that you never will. If you are having trouble there will always be someone there that is more then willing to help you, whether it is a best friend, boyfriend/girlfriend, parent, aunt or uncle, guidance counselor, anyone who truly cares about you and wants to see you succeed will be there. Remember you are the future of America and how you learn will affect the country one day.
