Its that time of year now. Picking classes, taking the SAT, or just like me - graduating from high school, just weeks away from decision day. No matter where you are in your high school life, at some point you've encountered AP classes or their scarier alternative, AP students. So, today we're talking about the AP Bubble and the reality of of AP Classes.
I wanna start this off by letting yall know that this is an insider looking out type of deal. I’m not making this to throw shade or anything and I did genuinely love quite a few of my AP classes, but retroactively, I kind of see the blinders AP classes put on us as students, and I want to make sure that everyone understands what the little AP bubble is. So, to give ya'll some background, my gateway drug into AP classes was this special class called World Civ where they combined English 9 HN and World History HN into a 60 person class and it was a bit more rigorous of a class than those who took them separate or not as honors at all. Sophomore year I did the Civ program again, because I loved it, only this time it was a combo of English 10 HN and AP World History. Once again you could take these as separate courses but if you wanted the cohesive experience and the coordination between teachers, Civ was the way to go. So, a lot of kids who took Civ freshman year took it again sophomore year and we kind of became really close knit since the other classes weren't doing what we were doing and we became our own little reliance system. We were there for each other because no other class, even if taught by the same teachers, were going through the same thing we were. This is where the bubble began. Now this is different for everyone, but it's a tendency that if you take one AP course of a specific kind, you keep taking them and so do the ones around you . So for 4 years, I was surrounded by the same students simply because our AP classes aligned. My friend and I had the same history classes with the same other 15 students simply because we took AP World, APUSH, and AP Comp/Gov. That's how many students form their AP bubble of like minded students. It was as if once we started, we couldn't stop. If I had left my APUSH class for a regular class, I would have been bored out of my MIND. I also wouldn't see any of my friends that are all in AP Classes I was/am a chill student. I get work done when it needs to be and I’m not overtly goal oriented. I just piece things together, but for the first time in my life, I felt like I NEEDED to find a purpose. I NEEDED to catch up even though I wasn't behind and that's because everyone around me had everything so planned out. Their notes were immaculate, their grades were perfect, and I was desperately tailing behind. I felt like this until my senior year. As if my work was nothing compared to the others in my class. And then one day I looked. I took a step back and observed and compared myself to everyone in my non honors class and I just thought, wow. It was actually in a class with one of my non AP friends and she looks at me like I’m crazy when I say I’m in the middle of taking my 7th AP. I belittle myself going “o but my friend is in her 12th” oh “You know so and so is in AP Calc, Chem AND AP bio in the same year” and it was the first time I looked at my accomplishments on their own. I stopped playing catch up for a moment and just sat there and I realized that I was going to be fine. You see AP in many minds, especially AP students, is synonymous with greatness. The AP bubble is this echo-chamber based in the fallacy of greatness. We are surrounded by others who think they are never working hard enough and so we in turn don’t think we’re working hard enough when we are actually doing fine. We look at those not in AP, not as less than, but as people who are squandering a chance to our higher perceived probability of success when the reality is, they will possibly be just as successful as the rest of us. They will get into the same schools as the rest of us. But that thought is so hard to come across because the only thing going through our minds is “one more AP. Colleges will think I’m great if I just take one more AP” or “she's taking 6 so I’m gonna take 7” and we use the accomplishments of others to void our own. In this comparison, we reduce ourselves, equating our worth to our work We don’t take a second and realize that greatness will not come from a class. It won’t come from an exam that most colleges, especially the top tier ones AP students strive to get into, won't even accept the freaking credit. They say you become what you surround yourself with, and I know I definitely upped my academics game to match those around me, but be careful and aware that you are in the class and if you are passing it, that’s enough. And to all my kids who are in the AP Bubble, remember that you are enough. Your effort, your time, it's enough no matter what those around you are doing.
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AuthorHi! It's Leila. Your average suburban girl with too much time on her hands. I hope you enjoy! Archives
April 2022
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