Friday, April 27, 2012
Read a book: the Pregnancy Project, on how a high school girl faked a pregnancy for her final year to study human reactions and stereotypes. Having come from a single parent family where her own mum and sisters were teen mums, everyone expected her to follow their footsteps. in other words, no one expected much out of her.
She has however, been able to score the best grades, take on leadership roles etc with her own capabilities. But whilst the news of the 'pregnancy' got out, a sister who had very much ignored her and cursed that she shouldnt be smug cuz she would likely end up like them, was her source of support. So was her boyfriend who was aware of the entire situation, and promised to go through the criticism etc of bystanders with her.
many things i learnt from this real life experiment:
1) do not let other's expectations of you affect your own expectations of yourself.
2) beware of those who are all smiles, and do not hate those who put you down, as you will never know they will be the one standing by you at the end of the day. Look at the criticism in terms of the issue, and not personally.
3) be thankful of the little opportunities you have. there is one part where she said an illegal immigrant went over to the US at age 7, risking his life by doing so. he worked hard all the way to get scholarships and lost it when they found out he wasn't legal. now he faces the risk of deportation and his past 10 yrs of hard work.
4) sometimes, in adversity, you only need one person to believe in you. i am glad i found that one person in my life. =)
A girl who gave birth, went back to school and afew weeks later graduated with the highest score was given only half the honour of being a valedictorian because the school did not want to marr the records with a black sheep. the next highest GPA gave half the speech. It sucks but stereotypes do exist and one mistake is all you need.
so think twice before you make any 'societal mistake', and thrice before you give anyone that dirty look.
Just The Girl @
12:06 PM
