This summer, our grading program made available to us all the statistics from our academic career- reaching as far back as enrollment. For some unknown reason, I was captivated by the new resource, I spent days accessing my first-grade statistics. Delving into the history of my art scores, and seeing my averages for 2007. My un-impressing grades were dismal, though. I fought with myself, asking myself why I hadn’t tried harder, done better, or accomplished more from these years of my life. The statistics defined my childhood. It was a journey to accept the past, but a true trek to come to terms with the importance of these grades. Especially in my high school years, I have found it very easy to identify the value of my education and my overall actuality by these grades. The intelligence we all possess do not make us more or less of a person. That implies some linear progression in life only achievable by academics and education- and that is simply not the case. To win in education is much like winning an art contest, it is perceptual, only determined by the perceiver we believe to have authority- and whom you decide to give the authority to is entirely up to you.

As I had the opportunity to speak with my Grandfather I was struck by his bluntness to educational regret, an analysis confronting success and winning would be defective if neglectful towards failure. My Grandfather said “[His] biggest regret is having to work and earn a living and not being able to continue going to college, going to school. If it were up to [him], [he’d] be a professional student. [He] wouldn't have a wife or children, but all boy, [he’d] sure be smart.” I found this hilarious to say the least, coming from my grandfather- but besides that, it shows his deep devotion to intelligence. My grandfather’s home could very well be passed off as a library. His walls are lined with historical fictions and presidential biographies, and he loves recounting the plots of these stories to anyone who cares to listen. His perception of winning an education is the obtaining of academia, which is a valid and understandable point.

An additional perception is the winning of an education through personal emotional and social growth. Our librarian, Ms. Cook shared of her mother’s social struggle which ultimately led to her not pursuing a college education despite her academic high standing, and the profound influence it had on her own desire to attend college. Ms. Cook recounts;

“She was very nerdy. She wasn't social and she actually graduated in like top 10 of her class. Not like top 10 percent, but she was like top 10 of her class, which was her expectation for me but she couldn't have gotten scholarships to college. She was too afraid to do that direction. So her whole life with me was you're definitely going to go to college, you're definitely going to do this because she regretted that she didn't do it. So she was really mostly just to stay at home mom.”

I love how the generational effect is portrayed in Ms. Cook’s story and the contrast the two interviews were from each other. Winning an education is not a tangible accomplishment, nor is it the same for all people. This win could be a singular pinnacle moment for some people, or a continual effort- like my Grandfather perceives it as. This success is not universal, and that is what makes our unique stories so important to education.