<p>Royce,</p>
<p>Reading your post finally inspired me to get over my long CC creeperism and create an account to post. I’m on the waitlist too, and going through this whole process, realizing what I have, I’ll start by saying lots of smart kids go to Harvard. Lots of them. Good, smart kids who have worked hard and have chosen to attend Harvard as the pinnacle of their high school career. That being said, it’s a travesty that American society thinks of college admissions in this way. It’s unfortunate that people feel that going to Harvard is the best thing just because they’re led to believe. Lots of those good, smart, hard-working kids will have been better off at other places. Better opportunities, a better social environment, better friends: whatever it was, society could well have screwed them into something that will not ultimately be the best for them. Maybe it’s providence that you’re going to Cornell. Maybe if you’d gone to Harvard (or MIT for that matter) you simply would not have had the same teachers or the same opportunity that launches you into the happiness of the lifetime that follows. </p>
<p>In reality, being a cool person in life depends on one’s ability to rise of this trivial bs. As hard as for us to believe right now, the coolest people alive are the one’s that step back and say f*** this, I don’t need this. Happiness should not be external. Honestly man, I’m being straight with you. People are messed up for genuinely believing that a committee of (underachieving?) people at a some hyped-up college can legitimately appraise you as a person. This is not mere consolation; this is the truth. At the end of the day, it’s all you. Tell this to people when you give your last speech. Make them who you are, what you know you are. If need be take it with a chip on your shoulder. Have you ever watched Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame acceptance speech? If you’ve got some time while you’re waiting for a call from Harvard, get a sense of the way of the way he used things to fuel himself. Dick Schaap, one of my idols and a Cornell grad, wrote about sports and the concept of duwende (not quite sure how it’s spelled), but it’s all about manifesting your internal drive in confidence. Your cool. </p>
<p>Best of luck. [YouTube</a> - Common - Be (Intro)](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>