The overlooked danger of scholarship success stories

3 September 2019 (Nerd alert: Written 3 months before the anticipated release of The Rise of Skywalker)

By Anisa Pinatih

Many returning scholars are now becoming ‘academic influencers’, motivating young people to follow the ‘sky is the limit’ motto and believe that anything, just about anything, is possible if you work hard enough. The tagline is efforts will never betray the outcomes. You want it, you work for it, you get it.

This is even more heroic when narrated from a zero-to-hero point of view. A poor scavenger kid from Jakku, and one day she wakes up, fires a lightsaber, and is now on her way to becoming a Jedi. Don’t get me wrong, though. I do respect people who grind to achieve their goals, but turning it into a narrative is, first of all, normalizing inequality and systemic poverty – an argument for another day – and second, it induces anxiety in this modern life that is already full of anxiety.

Motivators out there would tell you to hustle for your dreams rather than rationalize them. The problem with the ‘you can be anything’ idea is that you might see no other outcome but success. I’m limiting the discussion to academic success, so a typical dream is to get selected as a recipient of a prestigious scholarship to study in a developed country. Set a goal. Aim for the stars. The sky is the limit. Don’t settle. You know the drill.

A typical success story often implies: if you work as hard as I did, you can be just like me, but the truth is, not everybody is going to study in an ivy-league university, and not everybody is going to study overseas at all. There is a limit on the budget, and not everybody is going to make the cut. And to see no other way than success is dangerous because the vocabulary for those who did not make the cut is the opposite of success: failure. It’s cruel and just wrong.

Then what happens if we add a ‘humble beginning’ element to the story. It amplifies the effect. As in, I come from a humble place, a scavenger, and despite all my limitations, I found my way to Force and lifted myself out of poverty. The social mobility story implies that if you have enough resources but don’t get a scholarship, you may not work hard enough.

The grinding mentality places a great emphasis on efforts and neglects the factors we cannot control. Sometimes we never know why we find ourselves on this path and not the other. It is important not to build the whole sense of worth upon an ambition. Dream big, yes, but don’t be too hard on yourself because it’s so easy to fall into that self-pity, thinking that luck is never on your side, that you are not enough, et cetera et cetera.

But to call out to popular academic influencers is none of my intentions. Their success stories and encouragement are well-intended and needed. Young people need role models. My intention is, calling out to you to take the idea with a grain of salt because subliminal messages can just wash over us again and again, and we never realize that they are piling up somewhere at the back of our heads, taking their toll on the most unsuspected ways and time.

I once had a student in one of those intensive English programs designed to prepare students for a postgrad study. An agreeable young man, a student with special needs. He struggled, was often left behind, and couldn’t grasp abstract concepts. The class members were kind enough to help him whenever they could. I gave extra assistance. But at one point, it was getting harder to balance being accommodating and getting my job done. I asked around. It wasn’t clear, but rumour said his family in the suburb was not very well-informed, and they only wanted to help their son apply for a scholarship to study overseas.

He was there for two or three rounds of the same program. I remember sitting there with a colleague, thinking they could’ve used the money for better purposes, and in today’s society, given the right circumstances, his difference could become his strength. I also remember thinking it was unfair to check ‘fail’ on his progress report, but it would’ve been more unfair to check ‘pass’ because that’s a false hope.

Who’s to blame here? Youtubers and Instagrammers? I don't think so. The media were there, but they were not as massive as today. But that’s exactly my point. Even when such a motivation was only delivered in workshops and social events, maybe supported by word-of-mouth, the academic hegemony had an impact. The promise of “anyone can be just like me” can somehow mislead people into unrealistic expectations.

But take my message cautiously because this is not to discourage anyone. There is no doubt that people find inspiration, but the zero-to-hero angle might make people ask what’s wrong and why can’t they be just as successful. The truth is, there are success factors other than hustle and hard work, such as aptitude, the benefactor’s priorities (field of study, geographic areas, gender etc.), social-relational responsibilities, gender biases, and a sudden change of policy or even a sheer of luck.

There is a bit of danger in the jargon: the efforts will not betray the outcomes, whatever that means, honestly. The student in my class put in his best efforts, and the progress report betrayed him big time. Let’s imagine what influencers might say to console him, get up and try harder?

Inspirational success stories project the idea that it is within reach of your hands to be just like them, a successful scholarship awardee. If you have the same adversities as they did, low level of English, low socioeconomic background, low whatever, but you’re not securing funding by overcoming such adversities, then maybe you don’t try hard enough, or you’re just mediocre and not destined for greatness. It can be damaging thinking about it that way. We are told that we are all free to succeed, but in reality, most of us will not get very far. And although there are various reasons for failure, most people blame their mediocrity because, once again, it’s all in the hustle.

But what if you have done everything? But still. And what if we think about it this way. Us humans need narration to make sense of it all, including our sense of self. That’s how we have autobiographical memory to feel that we live in and linearly experience time, from beginning to end. Past experiences, among other things, define who we are. And as much as autobiographical memory constructs and reconstructs identity, the identity can also reconstruct the memory, especially if it’s played again and again.

And a success story, just like history, is written by a victor, so of course, it’s all about the hustle. Why would anyone say, “Oh, I don’t know, really, maybe I was just lucky”, because that will not sell. It’s not motivational at all. It’s not a success story if it doesn’t sound pompous and glorious. And if you see it with a bit of criticality, it’s not bad, it’s not good, it’s just human nature.

So, I’m saying this to you who got a bit weary. There is no need to feel anxious and inadequate. You’re enough. You’re one hell of a person, a son, a daughter, a friend, a professional, a living breathing human being. You’re valid with or without a scholarship. And when the outcomes betray the efforts, or the efforts betray nonsensical jargon whatever, breathe in and breathe out and don’t judge yourselves so quickly.

Besides, much of the encouragement to study overseas is just for studying overseas. It’s almost like studying is the ultimate goal instead of the vehicle to reach the destination. So, what’s the destination? You need to ask yourself this question before jumping on the bandwagon.

And maybe there are other instruments of success, like acceptance and peace. And if you’re reading this, I bet you’re not at that stage anymore. To Ivy League, you must go, a degree you must have. You might have done IELTS, might be rewriting your essays or just taking a break from all the craze and feeling a little tired. It’s all right. Quoting Master Yoda, train yourself to let go of everything you fear losing. In this war, a danger there is of losing who we are.

So just relax. Drink water. Ride a bike. Climb a mountain. Go home and binge-watch Star Wars. Evaluate the plan and rationalize the dreams, then try again another day. Or better yet, board the Millennium Falcon, fly to the galaxy far far away and live your life because there is a lot more to it than trying to become a Jedi.