Austin Scholar #69: Takeaways from my junior year (and how they can help your kid)
Austin Scholar #69: Takeaways from my junior year (and how they can help your kid)
& my growth this year, showcased in newsletter form
Hey, y'all!
This week from Austin Scholar...
Austin’s Anecdote: The biggest wins and losses of my junior year
Takeaways from my junior year (and how they can help your kid)
Scholar’s Sources: My growth this year, showcased in newsletter form
For my first week off from school, I spent this time in Dallas watching some incredible baseball games with my dad. Every minute was exciting, from three people getting ejected in one game (for non-baseball people, that’s super rare), to game-changing missed calls, to Shohei Otanhi pitching a great game and hitting a home run to secure the win. I’m so glad I got to share this time with my dad–as I've written about before, doing meaningful things with your parents as a teenager is so helpful for your relationship.
Happy Father’s Day to the most supportive dad in the world.
Austin’s Anecdote: The biggest wins and losses of my junior year
I can’t believe my junior year is (already? finally?) over. It was a big one.
This year was filled with some fantastic wins, and also some hard losses.
A lot of the highlights were a mix of both:
I met my goal of getting a 1500+ on the SAT, but my score isn’t Ivy-level yet
I gained 6,500 Twitter followers, but I failed my Rocketship goal of 10,000
I reached 1,000 newsletter followers, but am still eons away from my Masterpiece goal
Wins and losses aside, my junior year was clearly one of growth–in all areas of my life.
Perhaps most visibly, I’ve grown more fearless. I’ve learned to actually reach out to people I admire for support and advice. I’m more willing than ever to share my innermost thoughts–and my failures–on the internet. I will take the jump to achieve my goals, even when it scares me.
I’ve also really learned how to fail, and how to take feedback to improve. There have been so many days where I didn’t meet my goals, and so many projects that didn’t go as planned. Alpha is a hard school. I’m definitely not the perfect student–although I realize no high schooler really is. l think I truly understood that this year.
As I prepare to go to college and live on my own, I feel as though I have a more thorough understanding of the world, and of the skills I need to master to thrive in it. I’ve learned finance stuff, actually applying to college stuff, and living on my own stuff. I’m defnitely not ready to move out tomorrow, but I can feel myself preparing, and when I reflect on how much I’ve grown this year, it makes me excited to see what growth next year (my senior year?!) will hold.
Takeaways from my junior year (and how they can help your kid)
Let’s get back to those losses (because you know me: I like getting things right). Looking back, there are definitely some things I could’ve done differently to actually achieve my goals.
There are three main areas in which I would’ve liked to have done better: studying for the SAT, growing on Twitter, and growing my newsletter. I’ve done some deep reflection on each of these areas, and have some advice for your kids so they can get it right the first time.
How to improve an SAT score