{"id":15373,"date":"2010-01-06T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2010-01-06T07:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/2010\/01\/06\/the-wisdom-of-seventh-graders-success\/"},"modified":"2010-01-06T07:00:01","modified_gmt":"2010-01-06T07:00:01","slug":"the-wisdom-of-seventh-graders-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/20100106-01\/?p=15373","title":{"rendered":"The wisdom of seventh graders: Success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Seventh grade students (ages 12 to 13, roughly) were asked to write an essay on what success is and how you know  when you&#8217;ve achieved it. The assignment was given under standardized test conditions: 90 minutes with nothing but pencil and paper, with an additional hour available upon request. (In practice, few students ask for the extra hour.)\n Remember, these are only the funny sentences\/excerpts. Do not assume that all students write like this.<\/p>\n<p> <b>On the nature of success<\/b> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>     Success is not a very difficult thing to think about,     but if you explain it, it can be hard to explain. <\/li>\n<li>     Stride to Success <\/li>\n<li>     Success is not the end, but the beginning. <\/li>\n<li>     As the     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"saying\">say<\/span>     goes,     the only time you will find sucess before work is in the dictionary. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <b>Recognizing success<\/b> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>     You have to do something that is     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"genuine\">genuin<\/span>     and     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"worthwhile\">worth while<\/span>. <\/li>\n<li>     Success means you have a jolly time. <\/li>\n<li>     It&#8217;s a feel good feeling. <\/li>\n<li>     To me success is a goal a feeling of     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"proudness?\">prowness<\/span>.     that tells me that this is a goal of your limits not an age limit. <\/li>\n<li>     Sucess is when you had the opportunity to do something     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"great\">greatful<\/span>. <\/li>\n<li>     Success is shaking your butt in their face that you are better than them. <\/li>\n<li>     Another meaning for success is just winning.     Winning is what most people think success is,     but winning is only half the meaning of success.     Winning is just winning.     <i>Yeah, but at least you can shake your butt in their face,     and that&#8217;s worth something.<\/i> <\/li>\n<li>     Success is trying your best&#8230;     I have a question. do teachers ever have success? <\/li>\n<li>     You know you have reached the point of     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"success\">succession<\/span>     when you do really well. <\/li>\n<li>     So many kinds of meanings can mean success     but I think success mostly means to me a achieving. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <b>Steps which do not lead to success<\/b> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>     If you slack you get failure. You end up poor, sad, terrible. <\/li>\n<li>     You can&#8217;t just sit around watching television and eat Doritos. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <b>The fleeting nature of success<\/b> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>     But even though money may make you happy it doesn&#8217;t last forever. <\/li>\n<li>     After all, feeling like the king of the mountain     doesn&#8217;t come as     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"often\">soften<\/span>     as the frustration does. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <b>The recipe for success<\/b> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>     After you     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"graduate\">graguat<\/span>     from     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"college\">callage<\/span>     you can say, Success has finaly hit me. <\/li>\n<li>     If you get good grades,     you can go to a splendid     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"college\">colledge<\/span>     and then get a splendid     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"salary\">sallary<\/span>.     <i>Sounds splendid.<\/i> <\/li>\n<li>     One way is to make a T chart.     Put what your good at on the left and what you love on the left.     <i>Burn the right hand side.<\/i> <\/li>\n<li>     My opinion of success is a cab driver. <\/li>\n<li>     If you do all of the things mentioned in this article,     you&#8217;ll have a very successful life. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <b>Personal stories of success<\/b> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>     Whether your moment is singing on a stage to a huge audience,     or handing out your first order of French fries at McDonald&#8217;s. <\/li>\n<li>     Success can be as simple as winning a video game.     You win easily and celebrate with a cookie.     <i>Do you shake your butt in their face?<\/i> <\/li>\n<li>     I was the most happiest person ever! <\/li>\n<li>     Success is when you tell a casino that someone cheated at Black Jack. <\/li>\n<li>     Success is like when I was in 4th grade and I     learned to play Smoke on the Water a little. <\/li>\n<li>     One thing that really makes a family is a pet. <\/li>\n<li>     outsmarting and generally twisting my opponents words     against him feels like hitting the jackpot. <\/li>\n<li>     I was in such a dilemma! <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <b>Future success<\/b> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>     The     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"first\">fist<\/span>     and most important key to making a family is loving,     beautiful, and wonderful wife. <\/li>\n<li>     I want to get a wife that is nice,     hard working, and has simple pleasures. <\/li>\n<li>     My fantasies of success are having a great boyfriend,     a job studying the migration paths of turtles in Australia,     and eventually growing old and waltzing through an arch of     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"?\">Agust<\/span>     trees.     <i>But under no circumstances marry your boyfriend.     That ruins it.<\/i> <\/li>\n<li>     Over the past 12 years I&#8217;ve been alive,     I&#8217;ve had many emotions experiences, and a few lovers.     <i>Boys write about their wives.     Girls write about their boyfriends and lovers.     Wait, lovers? How old are you again?<\/i> <\/li>\n<li>     Success is feeling comfortable having Thanksgiving with your in-laws.     <i>I&#8217;m happy to declare that I have achieved success.<\/i> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <b>Examples of other successful people<\/b> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>     When Billy Armstrong made it to the moon,     he had a great feeling of accomplishment. <\/li>\n<li>     The teacher went around asking what they wanted to be when they grew up.     Most kids said normal things but one girl said she wanted to be a unicorn.     The class laughed.     Because she believed in her insane dream     she is the creator of My Little Pony. <\/li>\n<li>     Mr. Bill Gates did not just read a get rich quick book and     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"decide\">deside<\/span>     to     <span style=\"cursor: default;border-bottom: dotted .75pt red\" title=\"create\">crate<\/span>     Microsoft. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> Out of about 300 students, the number who cited Bill Gates as a successful person: 17. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seventh grade students (ages 12 to 13, roughly) were asked to write an essay on what success is and how you know when you&#8217;ve achieved it. The assignment was given under standardized test conditions: 90 minutes with nothing but pencil and paper, with an additional hour available upon request. (In practice, few students ask for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":111744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-15373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oldnewthing","tag-non-computer"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"<p>Seventh grade students (ages 12 to 13, roughly) were asked to write an essay on what success is and how you know when you&#8217;ve achieved it. The assignment was given under standardized test conditions: 90 minutes with nothing but pencil and paper, with an additional hour available upon request. (In practice, few students ask for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}