If I Could Re-Do High School: Matthew Sarker

One thing I’ve learned at Albany, is how much room I have left to grow, so it’s all too easy to look back at high school and pick out things that I could have done better. I know that I hardly ever engaged my teachers outside of class which is something I kind of regret. The thought actually never occurred to me, probably because I was preoccupied with schoolwork and other concerns. In retrospect though, I think that they probably could have offered some insight to questions I had about what to pursue and how to go about that. Many of the teachers I had the privilege of learning from had travelled interesting paths to arrive at being teachers, and I’m sure there was much I could have learned from them.

There are some other things I would have liked to be different too. I think it would have beneficial for me in college if I was in the habit of reading more, and I definitely could have built up that habit on the commute instead of always listening to music. It would have probably been good to get a handle on my habit of procrastinating. I also know that I could have been more motivated, but I cut myself some slack because high school is exhausting and it’s unfair to ask too much. I guess the biggest thing I would have liked for myself back then is actually the same thing I want for myself right now:  to have continued to keep trying to grow and bring out my maximum effort. 

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