If You Ain't Cheatin,' You Ain't Tryin'

With recent scandals involving celebrities and college entrance exams, Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, and the Jussie Smollett case, one can’t help but become cynical toward the ideas of honesty and hard work. At first blush, it would appear that bending the rules isn’t just expected but also required to get ahead and achieve one’s goals. Doing things the right way often means doing things the hard way, and yet success is still not guaranteed.

           My own experience in applying to college was one of the most humbling life lessons. On paper, I was an ideal candidate with a GPA over 4.0, high grades in honors and AP classes, a 1420 SAT score, and a class rank in the top 3. Not only did I have the academic credentials, I was also a well-rounded candidate having participated in math, essay writing, and trivia competitions, Model United Nations, and the Mock Trial team. My sophomore year I was named Most Improved Player on the high school golf team and my junior year I was elected to the National Honor Society. Heading in to the college application season, I was confident in my candidacy for the nation’s top schools. As a result, I applied to only a handful of schools, all competitive with low acceptance rates, a high volume of applicants, and notoriously difficult admissions processes. 

There was one school I applied to but wasn’t really all that interested in attending. My parents encouraged me to consider the College of William and Mary based on their travels to Colonial Williamsburg at Christmas to see the historical site in all its holiday glory. I knew little of the school and applied there mainly to appease them. Ironically, W&M would be the first school to respond to my application. Not only was I accepted, I was also given a scholarship I hadn’t even applied for! Certainly this was confirmation of my strong credentials and a harbinger of the parade of acceptances yet to come. Having secured a position at my “safety school,” I sat back and waited for the rest of the admissions letters to start rolling in.

As it would turn out, every single other college I applied to rejected me. I soon learned that every too thin envelope held a letter that began “We regret to inform you…” and included a brief discussion of that year’s application statistics that did nothing to reduce the feeling of crushing defeat. The first college I got in to was the only college I got in to. Had my parents not encouraged me to apply to W&M, I wouldn’t have gotten in to college at all at that point. To this day, I’m not entirely sure why I failed to gain entry to any of the other competitive schools. Perhaps I simply didn’t distinguish myself enough in a sea of equally qualified candidates. Most of those schools required an interview with a local alumnus or alumna and, as a card-carrying introvert and terrible self-promoter at that point in my life, I’m guessing I bombed. In any event, for someone who had known nothing but academic success, the college application and admissions process was my first significant taste of failure. 

I would soon learn that W&M was no “safety school.” The education I received there was second to none and, though the College doesn’t quite have the same name recognition as some of the usual suspects, I would put it’s academic rigor up against any other university. There is a reason W&M is sometimes called the “Alma Mater of a Nation.” Ultimately, I wouldn’t trade my college education for any other. My entire undergraduate experience started me on a path that has seen it’s share of triumphs and defeats, high and lows, successes and failures that have been worth every moment of darkness and doubt and every feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Still, as I continue to strive for something more and fight to carve out my place in the world, I am left wondering if I’m missing something. Perhaps there is a trick or shortcut I haven’t figured out how to exploit…life’s cheat code. We all click on headlines like “Warren Buffett’s Life Changing Habits” or “The One Thing Jeff Bezos Does Every Morning” or “28 Inspiring Bill Gates Quotes on How to Succeed in Life” hoping to have an epiphany but instead realizing what we already knew: there is no secret, no shortcut, no cheat code. In the end, you have to keep fighting the good fight and cling to the notion that hard work and doing things the right way will someday open doors and reveal the path to success one small section at a time. 

Despite what we often hear, following your dreams, believing that you can achieve anything you put your mind to, and other platitudes sound great on motivational posters but are concepts not grounded in reality. That doesn’t mean one has to give in to the cynicism that is “if you ain’t cheatin,’ you ain’t tryin.’ There is value in the struggle, the hard road, the toil. And while the difficult path may not guarantee success and cheaters do sometimes win, I find myself spurred on by the belief that a true cause and sense of purpose still mean something.