Breton Hawkins, 12, explains the importance of being involved in the political process.

Take any one of my teachers, seriously, any single one, and ask them about me. I don’t care which teacher. Ask any AP teacher about me. Ask my friends. Ask them if I’m smart. I’m positive they will tell you I am. Not to sound too conceited or anything, but I know I’m an intelligent guy. I make A’s in AP classes, have a 99th percentile SAT score, I have four 5’s on AP exams. My peers think I’m smart, my teachers think I’m smart, and I think I’m smart. But what no one ever tells you, that doesn’t matter.

Let me tell you – and every single freshman should learn this lesson – your natural intelligence, or lack thereof or really any intelligence, means nothing. Sure, teachers may tell you that you can’t just skate by, but you can. Or maybe they tell you that you can’t do it because you don’t learn that way, but you can. Some people can easily skate by, while some can’t. Some people can’t do more, and some can. Life works that way. But I will tell you, intelligence has nothing to do with it.

In physics, Potential Energy=Mass*Gravity*Height. That measures the possible amount of energy that could, key word could, be expended. I just made up my own universal law: Potential Energy For Success=Motivation*Galvanization*Hard Work. That equation doesn’t require intelligence. Motivation to do more, to be galvanized into action, to put in hard work. Work matters more than anything. And like I said, they may tell you the cliched “work hard” line, but you should actually listen. I can’t stress the importance of that enough. Intelligence doesn’t matter, working hard does.

Like I said, I’m generally recognized as a smart guy. For some that defines me, so those teachers will tell you that. But if you really press them, they’ll probably tell you I’m kind of lazy. I won’t even dispute that. I’m always reminded of lyrics from a Foster the People song, “When I feel kinda bad and don’t want to stress, I just pass it off on ability.” It comes from their song Houdini, and I will tell you, I do that a lot. I am very fortunate to not have to put in much effort to pass as marginally successful. School comes naturally to me and for that I’m thankful. For all that intelligence I was gifted, I haven’t done much with it. I’m not going to an Ivy-League, I’m not even going to my first-choice school. I may have had a lot of potential to do great things, but I lack pretty much every part of that equation I created. I recognize this fault, and perhaps I’ve simply never fixed this self-destructive behavior. I disappoint myself all the time, but I just pass it off on ability and keep going because it works for me.

I’m just kind of ranting right now, but I can’t stress this lesson, which I took way too long to get through my thick skull, enough. It wasn’t until my junior year that I ever tried, but let me tell you, that was too late. I want to go back 4 years and shake myself and just say “Do your stupid assignments you lazy bum! Just do them! Apply yourself!” Those assignments add up, I can vouch for that. So whoever you may be, the smart lazy kid, or the kid just trying to get by, or the one working hard to get by, I can tell you, you will get out what you put in. You can not maneuver around it in high school. Underclassmen, heed my warning, if you want to succeed, those chemistry notebooks and random backwards classroom videos and whatever nonsense they teach now – they matter. They all add up to one number that defines your high school career, so you owe it to yourself to make that number reflective of you. Intelligence may help, but hard work goes a whole lot further.