Grades. Test scores. Studying. Resume Building. More Studying. Being raised in an Indian community as a child, success in academics and college acceptance generally indicated a successful child to the community. For the longest time I bought into this philosophy, not because of pressure provided by my parents, but because I felt that was the only way to be accepted in our society. But as I grew older and older, I saw the means by which kids (not only in my community) would do anything to get the highest grade or some sort of resume builder. Competition had engulfed these students and made them into almost selfish individuals. In order to please the community around me I tried competing, but it just didn’t feel right. I realized that I wasn’t a competitor. At heart, I was a much more altruistic person who believed in helping people out rather than beating them. Altruism though, didn’t always get me the highest grades or the best test scores. In fact, at times I questioned whether putting others before myself was a beneficial belief to have in today’s society. And like most fundamental beliefs, they go through a period of questioning before actually being considered as one of your most fundamental values. But after contemplating, I knew that being self-less was something I stood for, and from there I was opened to a whole new set of beliefs that I hold today.
As a result of one of my first keystone beliefs, today I believe in being open minded and in having a sense of perspective. From putting people before me, I ended up meeting numerous amounts of new people that I would’ve never interacted with. And with all these encounters I met people with all sorts of different beliefs, some of which even contradicted with my own beliefs that I was developing. Some people were selfish, some were apathetic, but what I learned from these people is that one belief does not constitute everything a person stands for. Instead it is just a small part of everything that makes them who they are. Once I had this epiphany I started to become much more open minded towards people and what they stood for, hoping that they would do the same when I spoke about my beliefs. As a result, my open-minded mentality was born and has been a key quality that has allowed me to associate with all sorts of different people.
Following my interaction with all these people, I not only became more open minded, but I also began to learn about all the different perspectives people had on life, the way they live it and what they value the most. One of the most influential perspectives I stumbled across was that of my high school philosophy teacher. Having gone through a lot himself, he still came in everyday ready to teach us and encouraged us to learn for the sake of learning and learn what we are interested in. Even more, he usually had students that were very uptight about their grades. He on the other hand always reaffirmed that any test we took was “just a test”. With that mantra repeated over and over again I began to realize that school and academic success was nothing but a small part of life, but as a student (and a product of an Asian community) it seems to be the end of the world when a bad grade is received. In reality, I came to learn that bad grades help us grow as individuals and overcome obstacles. Not only that, but when we are upset about having done poorly on a test, there are others who are upset because they don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Its constant reminders like these that ensure that I keep a sense of perspective and never let the small things bring me down.
As I look towards the future and my time at the University of Cincinnati, I expect that to form numerous new beliefs. I expect to even reconsider or revise some of the current beliefs I hold today. I even hope to positively affect people as a result of my beliefs and help people find what they believe in. But most of all, I need to remember to put others before myself. Why? Because that is what has developed that majority of my beliefs and that is what has made me the caring, open-minded and perspective oriented person I am, and hope to continue to be in the future.