<p>I am not saying hide who you are, just you don’t want to walk around alienating people with “tude”. </p>
<p>Its smart to learn how others are thinking and what you can expect.</p>
<p>Journalist need to be agressive, but not too much so. </p>
<p>DOn’t get locked into the look of certain programs like student ambassadors. Look for programs where you might get scholarships and that will help you acheive your goals, which shouldn’t just be about college admissions.</p>
<p>If you come across as energetic, smart, kind, willing to do the work, reliable, then you will get more help from other people.</p>
<p>If you exude that aura of “i am better than all of you”, you wonj’t go very far, even if its true. You will need others to succeed, especially if you are involved in clubs, teams, volunteering, etc.</p>
<p>Let people see that spark, but don’t cast a shadow that doesn’t let others wnat to be around you.</p>
<p>Grainger_Girl, IMO it’s a rural thing. DW had virtually the same situation, and it was only ambition that first got her out of the county, then later out of the state, then finally to a major city. Many successful Americans learned their values in rural America, and utilized those values to great effect when they moved to centers of art, music, business, finance, academia, armed services, etc. Your grandparents may not understand why you have to leave, but they’ll be very proud of your accomplishments!</p>
<p>Granger Gal, please remember that there are a lot of schools and places in between your local Community College and Columbia/Duke. Missouri has one of the top journalism programs in the country. And there are many other schools with strong programs, including state univs. It might be that you can eventually get your parents/grandparents on board for your state’s flagship university. Excel there and I’m sure your future will be bright.</p>
<p>Also, a friend of mine who wrote for a newspaper told me she was a journalism major and was thrilled when Jane Pauley came to speak to her university. Jane told them that if they wanted to be a journalist, do NOT major in journalism! Major in something that would give you an area of expertise - Political Science, for example - and take a lot of writing classes. She said you can’t be a reporter if you don’t know your subject matter. So please don’t limit yourself to schools that are “ranked” as being great at “journalism.” </p>
<p>Also, give it a little bit of time. You are ambitious, which is great, but you’re still young and you will be out of hs and on your way before you know it. Let your parents and grandparents hold on to you a little bit while they can. </p>
<p>Also, don’t denigrate teaching and nursing. A great teacher can have a huge imprint on a young life, and without nurses we’d all be in big trouble. Both are demanding and rewarding professions. They may not be right for you, but if you are as mature as you claim you will quickly realize the error of labeling them as “boring.”</p>
<p>Good luck to you, and keep working hard! You are on the right track! Just make sure that you do the things in high school that you WANT to do. Don’t ever do an activity just because you think a college will like to see it on your transcript. Colleges want to see you pick an activity/interest you have a passion for (or maybe 2 of them) and pursue that in depth. It can be music, art, a sport, student government… whatever. But you only get one shot at high school - don’t waste it trying to be what you think someone else wants you to be. Enjoy your time, and pursue what YOU love.</p>
<p>“middle of nowhere”</p>
<p>I don’t know where Grainger<em>Gal lives. But I’m willing to take her at her word (since any advice she receives based on deceit benefits her not at all). There are places in the great center of this great nation where urban and suburban experiences do not apply. Anyone recall the crop-duster scene from North</em>By_Northwest? Pretty desolate, right? But there was a road through town, and a bus stop. Well, in the town DW grew up in there was NO road through town, and NO bus service. As late as 2001, there were roads without names … they were unnecessary, as everyone in town knew everyone else and where they lived. And yes, it was the kind of place where Valedictorians were encouraged to become teachers and nurses … returning to town after graduation of course to work in the school building (there was only one) or the community nursing home, respectively.</p>
<p>My point is that one doesn’t leave such places without a burning desire to do so. Some might interpret that burning desire as arrogance. Perhaps it’s arrogance alone that permits a young person in such a town to even consider leaving. So, can we cut Grainger_Gal some slack here, please?</p>
<p>She didn’t say that teachers were boring people, only that she thought that teaching as a career would be boring for her, something that isn’t unreasonable. Teaching is not for most people, and if you don’t like teaching then it’s a very miserable job. Grainger_Gal may not have worded things as tactfully as possible (but then what 13 year olds do?) but she has still expressed more tact than to insult anybody.</p>
<p>Grainger_Gal: be careful when people on site like this ask you to private message them for advice. They can be decent people but the fact that you’ve told people you’re only 13 puts you in a vulnerable position. Just sayin…be careful.</p>
<p>regarding my invitation to PM me, it was an offer of help since I too had to get away from very confining background. Rosie, you have watched way too many cheap crime TV dramas full of perverts and psychos. but then again, when you have a screwed up filter, everything looks screwed up. check my posts in the past, there is enough information of where I am coming from.</p>
<p>forgot to add one more point: as a finishing comment:</p>
<p>the reason why some adults like me consider a girl like GG special is because we as adults with life experience can spot a young person who has that rare quality of someone who will be very successful later in life with a proper guidance. AND yes, in most cases, it involves a burning desire and ambition to fashion a better life and greater significance of oneself way beyond what those surrounding her would allow her to aim for. AND YES, it may appear to those others who will never rise to her level as arrogance. Nevertheless, this sense of “I have a better destiny” is an essential ingredient for greater success. History is made by people who dared to be arrogant enough to be better than others. I for one had to go through years of “accusation” from those around me that I am arrogant, inconsiderate, and full of myself simply because I refused the role of a traditional woman in my society. But now? All of these people envy me. My parents are so glad that I defied ALL of their wishes for me then. </p>
<p>The uncut diamond may be rough and jagged around the edge, but those of us with trained eyes can imagine the brilliance of the gem with proper cutting and polishing, and many of us have a sincere desire to see that it happens. Those untrained eyes with no ability to discern the diamond from glass will fume at the special attention this rough stone is getting. They will bitterly complain that special attention is simply wasted and just further spoils the arrogant brat. My kids are lucky, especially my older one - he is an exceptionally gifted young man, and was lucky enough to have parents who spotted that early and and knew just exactly which angle that stone must be cut for maximum brilliance. There are other hidden gems without that kind of stone cutters around, and it’s a shame. But when the stone calls out for it, it will get all the help it needs. There are adults out there who would like to help: be it your teachers or advisors, etc. One of the things you will have to learn is how to spot the potential helpers and reach out to them. You are too young to understand how it is done but in time you will gain greater awareness.</p>
<p>GG: Today you were brave in seeking advice, but you also encountered some ugly outburst also. you are learning a very good lesson today. There will be many Rosie’s along the way until you find your place in the wide world, who will always try to bring you down to their level since that’s their comfort zone and they can’t reach higher or aim further. You should not internalize their negativity. But you do need to deal with these people. Not showing all of your colors is one way. Having seemingly humble demeanor at times may be also helpful. Simply disengaging those who will never understand and rise to your level is another good tactic. Learn to grow thick skin. Some of them will never understand or love you, and it’s OK - you don’t need to be liked by everybody. You need to learn that it is perfectly acceptable to NOT fit in, if the environment is not something you don’t want to be part of. Worse damages are done in an attempt to fit in certain environment than the damage incurred by not fitting in. “Belonging in a group” at times is simply not worth the price you pay if you have to be less and lower than who you are and how high you can reach. No matter what though, know that you can be all that you want to be with proper preparation and inspiration. </p>
<p>Good luck and Bon Voyage (look it up on Google if you don’t know what this means)</p>
<p>Rosie, my mom and my grandparents have had so many custody battles it’s not funny, so in the most polite way, they don’t consider me terrible to live with. Also, as far as my classmates go, I am liked among my student body. I fit in quite nicely and very few people dislike me. I don’t think you see that because a thirteen year olds outlook is much different from your own. And just to set things straight, I don’t think teachers are boring… In fact, I like my teachers and I think they’re quite good role models. However, I do not aspire to be a teacher; It’s not a boring job, just a boring job to me.</p>
<p>The point I was trying to make and I think it is a fair one is this:</p>
<p>If a poster, Rosy OR GG come across on a website in a certain way, then I would guess that some of that also comes across in real life, with real people. </p>
<p>Something that comes with time and experience is tact, and you will go further in life with grace, tact, understanding people and not allienating people.</p>
<p>GG- you are just on the path you want to take, and while some here see the wonderfulness in you, some didn’t- fair or not, that is the image you projected to some and maybe that is something to just think about. I am not saying rosy was accruate, but to be honest, there was a bit of truth in her comments about how you came across. At your age, you may not be aware of how important appearances are, in person and on the web and on paper. </p>
<p>Remember that when looking for work, internships,. leadership, recommendations, etc.</p>
<p>Just some food for thought</p>
<p>Of course a bright young person usually aspires to being more than a teacher or a nurse.</p>
<p>Of course 99% of CC parents don’t see teacher or nurse as the right future for their own children.</p>
<p>Of course teacher and nurse are likely to be intrinsically less interesting occupations than journalist.</p>
<p>^^^ Um, are you kidding? Being “more than a teacher or a nurse”? It’s fine to want to be other than because of different talents or interests - but why “more than”? What professions are more important, exactly? (Not better compensated - I know there are plenty of those.) Have you ever needed a nurse and had to wait until one was available? Unpleasant, wasn’t it? Can you imagine a hospital without nurses?</p>
<p>And as for teachers - were you born knowing how to read (write, analyze, compute, etc.)?</p>
<p>Granger_Gal,</p>
<p>I have long felt that adolescence is God’s way of making our caregivers willing to let us go.</p>
<p>When I was about to start my freshman year of high school, my mother often expressed her feelings about how wonderful it was that my small hometown had everything I would ever need.</p>
<p>She was probably looking forward to a little more distance by the time I turned 18.</p>
<p>This wasn’t an even curve. My father announced to me when I was a junior in high school that I was going to live at home until I was a college sophomore, at which point he would judge anew whether I had the maturity to leave home. I reacted with an angry and tearful confrontation with him, which ended with his pronouncement that we would “discuss this later.” 39 years later, we’re still waiting to resume that conversation.</p>
<p>It’s good, but not always easy, to be loved. They’ll come around in due course.</p>
<p>Frazzled1,</p>
<p>Teacher and nurse are of course important. But we do not expect our best and brightest - most intelligent and ambitious - to follow these professions.</p>
<p>Your desire to get out and do your own thing is understandable, but consider:</p>
<ol>
<li>What will a four-year cost in comparison to a two-year? Can your family reasonably afford a four-year? Sometimes the best option for people (especially if they don’t want to take out student loans burden themselves with student debt) is community college for two years. Not everyone who goes to community college are immature and “ambitionless”. Sometimes people only have what they can work with for college, so they need to be resourceful and responsible with their time and money. This is far from not being independent. </li>
</ol>
<p>College is what you make it. No. Education is what you make it. As long as you have the resources and mind at hand, no matter where you learn, it is what YOU make it. Hard work and perseverance are rewarded whether at community college, christian college, or university. The flipside of that is also true. Just because you go to a huge popular college doesn’t automatically make you smarter or more independent than a student who goes to community college. </p>
<ol>
<li>At some point, talk about a “deal” with your family. Consider their side and your side. Ask smart money questions, and see how you can help look for scholarships. Maybe even consider community college for a year, then transferring. By the time you are 18/19 you will have the freedom to make your own decisions, but be wise about them. You are young now, but your family will see you mature, and they may start to give you more slack.</li>
</ol>