Stay motivated
In our survey of almost 5,000 high school students, 75 percent said they hoped to go to college right after graduation. There’s no shortage of college ambitions, we found. What can be hard is staying motivated.
I’ve always had high expectations for myself. When I was five, I told my mom I wanted to go to Harvard. When I was seven, I knew I wanted to become a pediatric surgeon. Now I want to be a lawyer. College has always been part of my plan.
My biggest influence would probably be my older brother. He was going to college to be a mechanic and he actually got kicked out ’cause, believe it or not, he let a girl get to his head. And he didn't pay attention to his work. Right now, he's working two jobs with no plans for his future. I sure don’t want to be like him!
My family inspired me for college because they told me their stories of how they struggled with not going to school. My aunt got married at 18 and then she got pregnant. She just finished college right now. I’ve watched her struggle with two jobs and her family, and I don’t want to do that. My uncles, my family, seeing them has convinced me going to college is the way to go.
I say you have to motivate yourself. You have to tell yourself, ‘“I have to do it, and that’s what I’m going to do!’” If you make good grades, then people will pay attention to you, they'll be like, “He actually tries and puts effort into studying for a test.” Your parents, they love you, they're going to be like, “Yeah, you can do this, you can do that.” But at the end of the day, it's you doing the work. If you tell yourself you can't do it, mostly likely you won’t.
Sometimes the motivation comes from not wanting to let other people down. The thing I don't want to do is disappoint people.
It’s good when you get encouragement. Some teachers, whenever you bring up “If I go to college…” they just say, “it's not an issue of whether or not you should go. You should go no matter what. Do your best, do go. It's not a choice. It's the next step.”
