Matthew Sherman English 100 October-22-2013

Growing up I always felt like I was one of the smartest kids in school, but that feeling of having a high IQ started to fade away as I grew older. When I was younger, I always got As and the occasional B and made honor roll every year. Once I finished elementary school, I noticed school was getting harder and my grades were starting to drop. I wasnt getting Fs or Ds but I wasnt making honor roll and that was hard for me to accept. By not doing so well in middle school, my struggles as a learner gave me a fixed mindset. In my mind I thought I was going to be dumb forever and there was no way that I was going to get any smarter. I averaged around a 3.0 which is above average, but coming out of elementary school I had higher expectations for myself. The transition between elementary school and middle school is a problem elementary schools should be addressing. The way elementary schools shelter us, assign easy homework, and give minimal tests and quizzes makes it hard to make the leap to a bigger workload. Throughout my whole life I have been competitive, and when I am faced with a challenge, like a bigger workload and fail, it really gets to me. I am my own biggest critic. Whether in sports or education, I always want to do the best that I can and whenever I dont do the best of my ability I get frustrated with myself, hence the fixed mindset. Getting the best education I can using my grit and my growth mindset is my ultimate goal and dream. Being the youngest out of three, put a lot of pressure on me. The pressure even still exists to this very day and probably always will until I surpass both of them. I see my brothers as being pretty smart, smarter than me at least, and since they went through school first, they set the bar high for me. If I took the same class as them, I would always hear, Paul got an A, why cant you? I thought that was so unfair. I hated being

Matthew Sherman English 100 October-22-2013

compared to them because we have totally different personalities. Being the youngest you are kind of looked at as like a prodigy and when you d ont meet the expectations others have set for you, you are a failure. I know Im being too hard on myself and that is one of my biggest problems, but no matter what I do, it will always be compared to what my brothers did. Having two older brothers wasnt always a bad thing, sure I got picked on and was always compared but all that pressure made me the person I am today. They made me have a growth mindset because even when I failed, I always wanted to try harder and get back up on my feet to impress my family and be like my brothers. Grit is defined by Angela Lee Duckworth as not IQ, not having good looks, but passion and perseverance for long time goals. In a sense I would like to see myself as a person with grit, especially in the situation with my brothers. Trying to overcome them my whole life and and wanting to be like them or better has given me grit and I wont stop until I do. In high school, my mindset was different. My mindset was to do minimal work and try as little as I could to get at least a B but was always trying for an A. The mentality of just getting by ended up biting me in the ass. I thought I had more potential than what I was putting out. I felt like I could have tried a little harder and averaged around a 3.5 instead of a 2.87. I always ask myself this question: What if I tried just a little harder, could I have gotten into a UC? And just thinking about that question gets me angry and flustered. Now that I am in college, my mindset has changed drastically. I am all about school, no more xbox (which I played a lot in high school), no more hanging out with friends until all my school work is done. In high school, I had different mindsets in different subject. For example, I was quite hard on myself in math because I

Matthew Sherman English 100 October-22-2013

used to be so good at it. The math was getting harder and harder, but unfortunately I wasnt getting smarter and smarter. In my junior year I got a D+ in Algebra 2. Algebra 2 was my first D ever and I vowed to myself to never get one again because failing and letting not only your parents down but yourself is an awful feeling. Doing crappy in math my junior year, made me have a fixed mindset because I felt like I was never going to get smarter at math so what was the point. In my anatomy class I was always wanting to learn more because it was interesting to me. I wanted to know the difference between the fibula and the tibula. The challenge of having to know all or most of the bones in the body intrigued whereas learning the mid-point formula in Algebra 2 I could care less about. My mindset was all over the place in high school, which is why I struggled. I always look back and wonder where I would be now if I would of had more of a growth mindset throughout high school. Maybe I could be at USC instead of PCC but I live life with no regrets. I just learn from them which to me is a big part of having a growth mindset. Being able to learn from your mistakes and correcting them is what growth mindset is all about. Learning from my mistakes in high school, has given me a growth mindset now that I am in college. Having a goal helps your growth mindset because it makes you have that grit to get to your goal and you never want to stop growing until you reach it. For example, the Yoga Man, his goal was to be able to just walk again, and his amazing work ethic, not only made him walk, but he is now running.My main goal is to get to USC and transfer with a 3.5 or higher. Knowing what you want to do in life makes you work harder to reach where you want to be. Picturing where I want to go and what I want to do helps me tremendously. In Angela Lee Duckworths presentation she said

Matthew Sherman English 100 October-22-2013

that grit and growth mindset work together. I believe this statement because having both of these will get you far in life. You may not be a millionaire but I can guarantee you will be happy. Our educational system doesnt help young students and children become gritier. The educational system shelters kids minds and doesnt let them think creatively. In the back of every students mind they should have the same tho ught Ken Robinson had which was to be Divergent Thinkers. Being a divergent thinker is to be able to answer a question in numerous ways. Being a divergent thinker correlates with thinking creatively and not having your mind sheltered. In conclusion, my education throughout all my years was like a rollercoaster. I do not regret having those low points because they made me the learner I am today. I hope my education continues to grow and that I never lose my growth mindset. Having grit and the right ambition to reach my goals is what will make me strive to finally attain those goals and ultimately be content with my life. Being able to reach all my goals will not only better my education but it will also make my grit and growth mindset worth it. Getting to the ultimate goal of having the best education I can get is what makes me keep grinding and doing all my work. Knowing that someday I will have a grade A education, helps me get through all the boring reading assignments, the essays, and everything else that comes with the whole process. Reaching that goal is #1 on my list and I wont stop until I reach that goal. Using my grit and growth mindset I feel that there is nothing that can stand in my way, and that is a great feeling.

Works Cited

Matthew Sherman English 100 October-22-2013

"Angela Lee Duckworth: The Key to Success? Grit." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. "Never, Ever Give Up. Arthur's Inspirational Transformation!" YouTube. YouTube, 30 Apr. 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. "RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms." YouTube. YouTube, 14 Oct. 2010. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.