The greatest drawback of our education system is that it is no longer about education at all. It has evolved into an assessment system, a system to sort the population into winners and losers for the sake of colleges that lack the time to appreciate who we really are.

Terrifyingly enough, what happens in school is the least of our worries. This complex dictates our life. We are its slaves.

Instead of enjoying our limited youthful years, we feel obligated to twist our activities to appeal to college admissions, or else change the nature of our activities entirely until we have fabricated an image of ourselves that is more real than a page out of a poorly crafted novel. But we have no choice, right?

Wrong. We have a choice, but by some oddity of the human spirit, we will always make the decision to play by the rules of colleges, no matter how many times we are told that going to a big-name college is pointless. The truth is, we like convention. It gives us a familiar (if deceptive) sense of security.

This convention does have its merits. It is a good motivator for young people to participate in the community. But what is the trade-off? In return for their hard work, what we ultimately get is a generation of narrow-minded, delusional, dissatisfied teenagers that survive off of five hours of sleep a night.

Why should you risk the rest of your life for a few measly years? One word: happiness. Not just momentary, but for life, as nothing is more effective at dampening the glory of success than regret. Some things can only happen in high school. I understand this because I have experienced both sides of the issue first hand.

As a freshman in high school, I narrowly avoided becoming a victim of the system. I was convinced in eighth grade to join the crew team, the plan being for me to row all four years of high school and be recruited to an elite college. I hated it, but whether it was because I had never known anything else or because I wanted to please my parents, I denied it to myself and to them for a full year. There is a certain sense of unsubstantiated security knowing your path for the next four years, and I was foolish enough to succumb to its allure.

It was a fittingly grueling and robotic sport for me, who worked furiously in and out of school to achieve a purpose that I had yet to discover. And, despite my loathing, I finished the long season and was readying myself for the following. What I had not prepared for was what I was about to do next.

Because while watching the first Piedmont football game of the year, I was suddenly flooded with my true feelings, my desires, my ambitions. The sight of my peers under the blinding stadium lights sparked a fire that still burns in me to this day. In one shocking revelation, it became clear that I had to quit crew and join the football team before I was swept too far in the wrong current.

I went drastically out of character and did what I had to do, shocking my family and myself. Not a day goes by where I am not bursting with gratitude over my impulsive decision. I instantly fell in love with the thrill and camaraderie of football, and I finally feel like I have found my place.

I am not an isolated case; I strongly feel that everybody has a passion, and if you can put aside your college ambitions for just a moment, who knows? Perhaps, like me, it was right in front of you all along.