Remember The S.A.T.?
Driving home from ginormo store (yes. again.) I noticed a little sign posted on the side of the road. “SAT Preparation help”.
This sign made me think 2 things…one: weird place for an SAT prep sign…and two: there is no way I would be able to take the SAT test today…no way. It’s not that I got dumber as I’ve aged, but I can’t even remember how I got through it the first time. I must have though, I graduated from university and then went on to grad school.
I went to high school in the days before parental-supervision-for-every-freaking-overbooked-event in a kid’s life. So, it isn’t as if mom and dad sat me down in my junior year and said, ‘ok, let’s start preparing for the S.A.T.s together–so you can ace them and get into Harvard, ok precious oldest daughter?’
They were more like, ’something came in the mail for you from a college and you’re going.’ Boom. End of university chat.
I did all the “preparation” on my own. (Read–minimal).
It bothers me that I didn’t know enough or didn’t have the kind of guidance you need to plan for something that big. That one test and my lack of astuteness…often makes me feel that I approached a lot of things in my life in a sort of half-informed, confused fashion. And possibly missed out on some important opportunities.
It took a huge chunk of my career to understand that if you are asked, “what are your weaknesses” during an interview…you don’t actually tell the person: “Sometimes my A.D.D. kicks in during an important meeting.” You’re supposed to answer with some kind of positive insight: “If I have one weakness, it’s that I work 24/7″, and like that.
Had I gone to an interviewing seminar, or read a book, I might have been better prepared and more polished.
I’m just used to winging everything on my own: I don’t get too bogged down in planning…in fact I think my brain shuts down if it senses complex minutiae. I don’t make decisions until I can feel my gut telling me to do so, one way or the other.
Not too much preparation involved…but I wish someone would have told me a long time ago, it’s ok to wing it.
