Reality Check

re·al·i·ty

Noun: the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them.

As we finish up our last years in high school it's good to keep that little word in mind, a small, rather sobering word that everyone needs to accept in order to be fully engulfed into adulthood. Personally I think William Lyon Phelps had his head in the clouds when he said "if you develop the absolute sense of certainty that powerful beliefs provide, then you can get can get yourself to accomplish virtually anything, including those things that other people are certain are impossible" I don't know but for some reason the more I keep reading that the more I feel it belongs on a motivational instagram page; and before I say anything else let me just say that this is my Orwellian opinion on how things are in life, nothing more.

According to our boy William, on paper if the average person were to train everyday for their first three years of high school and have faith that they will achieve their dream no matter what others say... then they should be a shoe in for the Olympics right? Well, no that's just not REAListic now is it? I remember later last week at practice where I asked my track coach if becoming a professional runner was exclusively based off of hard work alone or talent, in which he turned to me and said " a little of both I guess" and proceeded to keep running. Don't get me wrong, I believe that with a combination of hard work and grit the average person can probably achieve the goal they have in mind as long as its realistic; but its not emotionally healthy to have the mindset that as long as you keep trying you're bound to finally get your big break, because at the end of the day... you either have it or you don’t.

There are two terms in psychology that fall under the umbrella category for Locus of Control-basically the amount of control one feels like they have on their life- and that is External and Internal; people who agree with internal believe that they have full control over their life and with enough effort than anything can happen (William) and External follows the idea that you're either born with it or you're not (Bertrand). Honestly I fall under the External side of things, if you ask me I often think life can and most of the time is unfair to people; one can spend their day dividing the workload of their two jobs, make it back in time to use whatever little money they have left to make dinner for their family and still get evicted and live their life in poverty at the end of the day. You could spend weeks studying and prepping for a big test and totally bomb it, or make all the right choices to help the people around you and still get walked over by everyone else. Bertrand believes that with every goal you have you need just as much doubt so that you're not absolutely crushed when you fail or miss out, because if you're anything like me then that’s a lot of the time. Admitting that you may not always score when you shoot your shot isn't sad; it’s a part of life that’s necessary in keeping your adult self-sane.

I hate to break it to you but not every man is created equal, there's always going to be someone who's prettier than you, faster, stronger, and smarter. Hard to swallow isn't it? That you could pull an all nighter studying for a quiz and barely pass while your friend skipped the review day and showed up late but still managed to get an A, is it really all that pessimistic to take a possible future achievement with a grain of salt? Is it really all that crazy to believe that there's someone in the world who can look a gift horse in the mouth after repeatedly receiving nothing but failure and (excuse my French) half assed achievements their whole life, simply because the possibility of something that good happening to them is that alien?