A lot of times when someone says something negative it almost has a greater effect on us than something positve does. If someone says you can't do something long enough you start believing it. It is hard to change that mindset. But once someone says you CAN do something, that can give something a whole new meaning. Keep reading to see what I mean!
I have never really been good at school...or so I've been told. I like to leave things to the last minute and leave people waiting to see if I could pull it off. Need proof? Ok, let me run through it.
When I was in basis school (which is elementary and middle school in Holland, from ages 4 to 12) you had to take a standardized test sort of like the S.A.T.'s to see what level of high school you would go to (I'll get to that later). I don't do well on standardized tests, I never know which multiple choice is the righter (is that a word?) answer. I tend to get confused. The principal of my school told my parents that his elise wasn't smart enough to pass high school. He believed it was better to put me in a lower grade of high school. Bless my parents for telling him hell no (excuse the french), I would go to the level my test said..not lower. If I did poorly I could go lower then but I wasn't gonna start low. I graduated in 1998.
Fast forward to high school. I went into the 2nd lowest level called MAVO and it was 4 years. We also have IVBO (lower, also 4 years), HAVO (highter, 5 years), VWO (higher, 6 years), Gymnasium (for the genius people, 6 years). I struggled in Mavo, not gonna lie. But in the end, after you do your final exams, your teacher will call you between a certain time to tell you if you failed...they called me. To let me know I passed! I think everyone was upset, they were so worried and I passed with relatively good grades. Here's to not being smart enough to pass high school!! BOO-YAH! I was in the class of 2002!
After high school I enrolled in tradeschool (the only thing you can do with a Mavo diploma) for fashion design for 4 years. Honestly, can't really remember a thing about what I learned. My choices were fashion design school or forensic science. The forensic science school wanted me...not a lot of girls wanted to enroll there. But the layout of the school was weird (like that makes a difference haha). When I went to check out the fashion school they said we had a fashion show at the end of every year...SIGN ME UP!! Those were a blast! Here is a pic from my final Betsey Johnson inspired fashion show
I ended up graduating in 2006!! Here's to being not smart enough to pass high school...I now have a tradeschool diploma! BOO-YAH!
Fast forward to now. I think somewhere in the back of my head knowing that someone didn't think I was smart enough always stuck. So has the fact that my sister did HAVO, and all my cousins did VWO...literally the least smartest (on a standardized test) grandchild. That's not fun, I don't care what way you look at it. Now that I am so close to graduating all these feelings are coming back. Yes, it took me 6 years to graduate, but I was only enrolled in college for 4 years. My former principal will be receiving an invitation to my COLLEGE graduation. Here' to not being smart enough to pass high school, I almost have a Bachelor's Degree! BOO-YAH!! I will be in the class of 2013..a lucky year!
I was talking to one of my teachers about my future plans. I got the 2nd highest grade in his class. He told me he thought I was smart enough to get my PhD...never heard those words before. He said he believed I could go get my doctorate. I never even thought about going that far, or even considered that. Now EVERYTHING changed after he said that. It was the kick in the butt I needed. I will be getting my Master's Degree in Criminal Justice or Sociology. He has no idea how much his words meant, whether he meant them or not, they stuck and made a huge difference. It is important for me to get my Master's because people don't think I can do it...that right there is the biggest motivation I can get to do it. You say I can't do it...WATCH ME! After I get my Master's degree, I will have to evaluate where I am in life, and I might go get my doctorate...and have my former principal call me Dr. Elise :) BOO-YAH!!!!!!!
Thank you for reading all of this...I know it was a long post, but I just had to get this off my chest.
xoxo E
congrats and good luck!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Jen!!
DeleteE to be honest those dutch teachers are a bit weird....i mean no one had any hope for us mavo students....and look how far we have come! Whether we have a degree or not babe its who we have become! We have travelled the world we have more life experiences than anyone who just did vwo and went straight to uni. And that is worth so much more than any degree. And now we both have our bachelors and maybe one day both our masters we can just look back and think how great we are and how much we have learned along the way. And you are an amazing person with or without a degree. I may not see you much but i am proud of you in all you have done and in what you will do! You are one of those friends who i may not see a lot but when we see eachother its like the old days! Im happy to say you are my friend and i will always belief in you. You can do whatever you set your mind on! You go girl!!
ReplyDeleteSteph!! That literally made my cry! You are the sweetest! Its true though, we went, saw and conquered the world...literally! Both of us are doing things that no one would have expected. I'm so glad that we keep in touch and have one of those relationships where we can go years without seeing each other and it id like nothing changed. I can't wait to see us with husband and children. You are so special to me and you will be in my life forever, and I can't wait to see what life has in store for us next!!
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