We sometimes need to make decisions in life in order to do the best at what we attempt.

    Some of the decisions are easy, such as what clothes to wear for an important event. But there might be some difficult ones, which we don’t like but have to do, regardless. If we don’t watch out, though, those decisions can cause us to lose our sense of self.

    At school, for example, we believe that learning is the most important thing. We become lost in blind pursuit of results, and forget the real purpose of learning. If we study just for marks, eventually we find that good results do not always represent the best of who we are. Thus, we might lose ourselves as well as our direction in life.

    Bill Gates is an example of how achieving high marks is not always the best path. All of us know that he is one of the richest men in the world. When he was about 18 years old, Gates enrolled at the internationally known Harvard University. Apparently, Gates learned well beforehand, because he scored 1590 out of a possible 1600 on the SAT to gain entrance to Harvard. But in just his second year of study there, Gates decided to drop out. He gave up a Harvard degree to pursue his dream. After he left Harvard, Gates put all his efforts into Microsoft, which he created with childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975.

    We can see that Gates achieved great success while remaining true to himself.

    In my opinion, to be yourself is more important than to get better report cards. Perhaps higher marks could get you into a good university and make your life smoother, but in some situations, you might see that this is not the result you want, even not the thing you would be most proud of.

    Be yourself and you’ll find life much more colorful and much happier.