From an early age, I was taught to be the best that I could be. To be successful in your life, you have to strive to be your personal best you can be. I think being the best of the best is a phony source of self-esteem and pride. Many people do whatever they do just to be in the records, and they are only happy about the award. There can be only one person whose personal best is the best, and we will never know for certain who it is. I say this because not everyone has the opportunity to share what they can do.

I have many friends – many of them who I have been friends with since I transferred schools. Though I have excellent relationship with them all, I didn’t care much for the social part of the friendships. I know very few of their parents – meeting them would be just an act of pure chance and fate. If someone asked me to party on a Friday, I would decline the offer and go about my business. I haven’t been to a birthday party since the third grade. I haven’t been to a sleepover since the fourth grade.

Even today as a junior in high school, I haven’t been to any means of fun. I have no interest in going to the homecoming football games, and you have a better chance of finding me dead than finding me at the homecoming dance with a dance partner. I have the perfect dress for the prom, but I doubt I would go to prom even if someone that I like asked me to be their date.

I have been told several times how important education is. Without the right education, you have a slim chance of making it big. In developing countries, the only way out of the poverty is education. People who have the luxury of having an education at hand will take it for granted. Others will jump after the chance as if it is a matter of life or death. In many cases, it is a matter of life and death

That’s why I am part of a group that is currently earning money to sponsor an underprivileged Kenyan man to go to college. Last year, we raised enough money to sponsor two years’ worth of the student’s fees. I devoted little as lunchtime to help raise money to assist Karambu Ringera. The money is used to give education to a student so they can change their life for the better.

I believe education is our fate master and not God. What God chooses to do with us is out of our reach – that is not the true meaning of fate. We control our fates. Education is the key to the good side of our fates. With education or even the key to unlock it, you’ll be drawn to the dark side just as Darth Vader did. Anakin did not have the education to resist the dark side. That applies today too, especially when students drop out of high school. They see the dark side where there is no education and it appeals to them. Then, they give in to the dark side. This is wrong – to throw away education and think that your life can be the best as you can make it without it.