Pressure on me to succeed

Dear Pastor,

I hope you're doing well. I'm a regular reader of your column. I download THE STAR on my phone just for your section. Keep up your good work. I am 16, a grade 10 student at one of the best high schools in St Catherine.

I have this problem with my parents, my siblings, my grandfather, and all my subject teachers. I have been facing this problem from I was in grade nine.

In the future, after leaving secondary school, I would like to attend HEART and then after that, I would like to become a receptionist.

Pastor, I don't want to do receptionist work all my life, but everyone makes it seem that way. The teachers are telling me that I'm not that type of student that should be thinking about HEART after leaving high school.

They think I should leave that to someone else in a lower status. My grandfather would say that I'm too intelligent and that I have a much more developed brain to be thinking about HEART.

LOW STANDARDS

My parents, along with my siblings, said I'm setting my standards too low. The same story goes on for me being a receptionist.

I totally don't see what's wrong with going to HEART. I just think that this would be a good opportunity for me, and somehow I would be better off going to HEART than college.

These days I'm hardly learning. I mean my mind and spirit are totally somewhere else, I don't know.

I realised that this started happening when I heard about setting my standards too low, because I just think going to HEART would do me well.

I am an active member of the school band and I am one of the lead singers, and sometimes I play the drum. Whenever my mom told me that there wasn't enough money for me to go to school, I cried but I still went because I'm on PATH and the ministry provided PATH buses to take us to and from school; so I decided nothing could or would ever stop me from going to school.

What I also realised is that these days I hardly pay attention to the lessons. I don't usually study.

Even in my community, everyone is looking up to me as a young girl to make a change. The girls in my community are promiscuous.

So each time I used to go on the street, and mainly in my uniform, they would always say, "Remember we are looking out for you because you're the only one who seems to make a change and carry the name of the community."

Pastor, please tell me what to do. I really don't want to go to college. I would love to attend HEART, but no one wants me to, and I don't love doing anything other than what my mind thinks and tells me to do.

If I do, I will never end up on the right road.

M.C.

Dear M.C.,

I could understand how you feel. You are determined to attend HEART. Your relatives and teachers feel that HEART is not the place for you.

They see you as a very bright and intelligent young woman, and that you can excel if you were to attend an institution of higher learning.

I understand how you feel, but I would ask you not to ignore the counsel and advice of your teachers. Perhaps they are seeing what you cannot see at the moment.

So even if you were to attend HEART, please, try to further your education by attending university. I am glad the people in your community look up to you.

I would say to you, continue to study hard. Do not neglect your schoolwork in any form because a person's grades will follow them wherever they go.

I will be praying for you. Make your parents, teachers and others proud of you. I look forward to hearing from you again.

Pastor