I keep thinking about how my life would be so different if I didn't go to MATES. Without coming off as pompous, I doubt I wouldn't have remained the valedictorian through high school and graduated at the top of my class, mainly because my grade was just genuinely dumb. I might be at any ivy league or another very prestigious school, but I think it's more likely I wouldn't. I think I would have ended up at a worse school than the one I'm at.
I know that the only reason why I am the person with the views I have today are because of my experiences at MATES, particularly with the teachers. Thinking about how life would have been at a regular high school, I probably would have just skated by at the top and settled for somewhere with not too much work involved, not that that's a huge problem, but I'd be throwing away so much ability. It's kind of paradoxical in a way, I could have had the "phenotype" for achieving greatness, so as to speak, if I stayed in normal high school, but I sacrificed that for the "genotype" I developed at MATES. Much of my life changed very quickly (sans work ethic) with just two short conversations with two of my teachers.
Another thing I have to think of beyond academics is how my life was shaped socially by MATES. I was not liked in middle school, particularly because anti-intellectualism was too big of a fad at the time. This is why I spent two years of high school acting dumb; I spent three years with a bunch of people only interested in social aspects of life and frowning upon any demonstration of intellectualism. It was silly to carry it on for so long but the school almost brainwashed me in a way.
