I Change Myself, I Change the World

"Never mistake knowledge for wisdom.  One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life." -Sandra Carey

One thing we should learn is that knowledge is gained through learning, while wisdom is gained through experience.  I made a post on one of my social sites within the past couple months about one of my experiences.  I had to be able to find myself and find who I was throughout elementary school and middle.  Attending Sterling Elementary and Meadowland Elementary, I found that not everyone like you, and some people care a lot about you.  In some occasions, little kids can be cruel to each other and you can be on either end of the cruelty.  At Seneca Ridge Middle School, I still had to find myself, gaining few friends along the way.  I found myself picked on quite often, as if it was a teen high school movie with the different clique of friends.  I floated between groups but never established anything concrete off of the basketball court.  Often hearing "you will never be on TV", "why do you even try? nobody gets  noticed from this area".  I took these comments and kept living.  Throughout middle school, I sat with the same individual every day at lunch at our big table, his name was Brian Douts.  We would talk back and forth but that was about it.  Brian was fortunate to play football at Frostburg State University. Two of the four kids out of the whole school who pursued college athletics were at my table.  The other two were Casey Hartman who played baseball in college and Adrian Tracy who played football at Wlliam & Mary who worked hard enough to get drafted in the 6th Round by the New York Giants.  Casey and Adrian were both in my close group of friends.

I was never the "cool kid" in middle school.  I know some of those kids who were popular back then.  I go back home to Sterling and I see them doing nothing with their lives.  Some end up at NOVA community college, and others end up in the prison system.  One thing you have to take from this is that as long as you stay focused, nobody looks back at who you were in middle school.  Socially, it does not matter.  Once you leave for college, it is a whole new ball game.  You are able to meet a new group of friends and these are the friends you have bonds and ties with for the rest of your life.  Just focus on your life and your goals earlier on, even in high school, stay focused.  The more you worry about the social aspect in school, the more your life will go off track and you will lose sight of your goals.  Surround yourself with people who have similar goals and aspirations.  Be the one who is focused on your personal goals, and you all of a sudden see others following in your footsteps.

"I Change myself, I change the world." -Gloria Anzaldua