After reading "The Achievement of Desire," I feel I can relate to Rodriguez in many aspects, but there are also ways in which we are different. When I began to read Rodriguez's story I recognized similiarites between us. Throughout my academic career, I took school very seriously. My education was always the top priority in my life. I valued it more than anything else because I knew that in today's world, you must obtain a higher education to become successful. I started this love for my education when I was young. I was raised to to respect my teachers and work diligently to get good grades. Like Rodriguez, I looked up to my teachers because I saw them as very intelligent. After we were done with a lesson, I would never ask questions because I figured everything my teachers say must be absolute truth. By not asking questions, I found myself becoming a "scholarship boy". I didn't have my own opinions, instead I took ownership of the opinions of my teachers and did not think outside the box. I became a passive thinker; just absorbing the facts that were thrown at me. All I cared about was that I knew what would be on the test and forgot about all the other facts in class. I feel that I lost alot of important information by ignoring the questions I wanted to ask. Also, the value of being an independent thinker or critical thinker was not internalized during my adolescent or teenage years. Another important similiarity between Rodriguez and myself was all the time and effort we put into our education. Throughout my life, education was of utmost importance. I would always give up things to study or do homework, but never gave up school to do things important to me. I feel I lost alot of time that I could have spent with my friends and family because I was in the library studying for exams or doing homework that wasn't due until the next week. Even today in college, I find myself missing out on hanging out with my friends. My friends don't understand how important my education is to me. They don't realize that I want all good grades and can't stand to see myself fail. Rodriguez uses a quote from Hoggart that states,"[The scholarship boy] tends to over-stress the importance of examinations, of the piling up of knowledge and of received opinions." I relate to this idea because when an exam comes around, I have an anxiety of not doing well and obsess about studying so I can suceed. I believe that in order to be successful in school that students need to have characteristics like the scholarship boy described by Rodriguez. That is why I feel I am doing the right thing by taking in all the information taught to me using it to get good grades. I found many situations in which I was similiar to Rodriguez, but there is one difference.
When reading about his story, I was very alarmed at how he thought of his parents. He used the words, "I was not proud of my father and mother." This bothered me because his parents are trying to let their children have the best opportunity at an education even though they might not be able to afford it. Rodriguez never gives his parents praise for what they did for him, but rather comments on their lack of knowledge. In this way we are very different. I appreciate everything my parents have done for me. They pushed me to work hard and achieve anything I wanted. My parents set an example and standard for education, and their high expectations motivated me to reach my full potential. They were always there for me, just like Rodriguez's parents were there for him, but he just pushed them away. I believe that in order to be a "scholarship boy," you dont have to exclude everyone from your life. I think Rodriguez wanted to do this because he felt that he was smarter than his parents and this was the only way he could justify his actions.
I think there has be to a happy medium between a family life, social life and academic life. In order to reach your highest potential you must balance all of these aspects of your life. Never allow one to outweigh the other because they are of equal importance. If you do this you will succeed both academically and socially.
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