Success in Education

Education affects everyone; whether it’s from a teacher, a parent, or even a book, education has some sort of impact on each individual. Education plays a key role in life, without it any one could become discontented. Although some, like Bill Gates, dropped out of college and is content, a majority of the time educated people prosper; giving eager young minds the opportunity to fulfill their dreams. People who are well educated have a lot going for them— they could pursue a career in whichever field they dream. People who take education for granted may not have as many things going for them, due to lack of knowledge. Uneducated people may have experience, and yes experience matters but it can only go so far. Knowledge can be gained from experience and if an educated person already has the knowledge, it’s almost as if they were on a treadmill of life going two times faster than an uneducated person. Due to a personal experience of observing friends drop out of school, and statistics, education seems to have a positive impact on ones career, and more importantly one’s life as a whole.

Growing up in a town where education matters as much as an eight-track, it was very hard for me to become something that I wasn’t, a studious student. During middle school the actual �peer-pressure’ began: friends of mine started to drink and smoke at the ages of 12 and 13. I would attend my friend’s parties but I would never do anything extreme knowing my parents were soon coming to pick me up, like they always do! Hanging out with my so-called friends was fun until I noticed they all started to drop out of school one by one, like water from a leaky faucet, leaving me no other choice but to make new friends. During high school I came to the realization why school existed; not to make new friends, not to see the first fight of your life, but to become educated, while everything else is a plus. My �friends’ from middle school and the pre-high school years had dead end jobs working 9-5 with very little pay, all while I was in high school. This encouraged me as a student to thrive, to work hard now and all will fall in place in the end. After having all my friends drop out, with merely a middle school degree, this as well encouraged me to make better friends. My best friends graduated as valedictorian and salutatorian, they matriculated to prestigious schools such as MIT and Columbia, which made me proud of the type of people that influenced my life.

Becoming a more studious student, has benefits other than a better education. By becoming more aware with studying, students can meet other studious students who have may have connections in their field of studies, giving them an opportunity to gain experience as well as knowledge. My father, who moved here from India nearly 27 years ago, has a bachelor degree in chemistry, from India. For the past 20 years, having a bachelor in chemistry, he has been a manager at several Burger Kings across Atlanta. My father tells me all he had to do was complete three years of school in America, and he would be a chemist; instead he takes the easy way out and grabs the first job that comes his way and never looks back. He says he hates his job and to this day he wishes he would have completed three years of school. He tells me to never give up or take the easy way out; work hard now and everything will fall into place later. This taught me that a couple of years of hard work could leave you with the rest of your life to be happy.

A study is constantly being conducted about higher education and salary income by the NCES (National Center for Education